Dr. James Kildare is a
fictional American medical doctor, originally created in the 1930s by the author
Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name
Max Brand
Frederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 – May 12, 1944) was an American writer known primarily for his Western (genre), Western stories using the pseudonym Max Brand. He (as Max Brand) also created the popular fictional character of young ...
. Shortly after the character's first appearance in a magazine story,
Paramount Pictures used the story and character as the basis for the 1937 film ''
Internes Can't Take Money
''Internes Can't Take Money'' is a 1937 American drama film directed by Alfred Santell and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Lloyd Nolan and Stanley Ridges. McCrea portrays Dr. Kildare in the character's first screen appearance. Metro-Goldw ...
,'' starring
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...
as Jimmie Kildare.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsequently acquired the rights and featured Kildare as the primary character in a series of
American theatrical
films in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Several of these films were co-written by Faust (as Max Brand), who also continued to write magazine stories and novels about the character until the early 1940s.
[Mavis, Paul. "Dr. Kildare Movie Collection (Warner Archive Collection)" (DVD review).]
DVDtalk.com, Mar. 16, 2014, accessed Mar. 29, 2015. Kildare was portrayed by
Lew Ayres
Lewis Frederick Ayres III (December 28, 1908 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor whose film and television career spanned 65 years. He is best known for starring as German soldier Paul Bäumer in the film '' All Quiet on the Western Fr ...
in nine MGM films.(Ayres was drafted in 1942 and served as a non-combatant medic until 1946.) Later films set in the same hospital featured
Dr. Gillespie (
Lionel Barrymore). Ayres returned to voice the Kildare character in an early 1950s radio series.
[The Digital Deli Online, "The Story of Dr. Kildare (Radio Program)"]
digitaldeliftp.com, accessed Mar. 29, 2015. The 1961–1966 ''Dr. Kildare'' television series made a star of
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain (born March 31, 1934) is an American actor and singer, who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show '' Dr. Kildare'' (1961–1966). He subsequently appeared in several TV mini-series, such as ''Shō ...
[Mcneil, Alex. ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present – Revised Edition''. Penguin Books, 1996, p. 225. .] and gave birth to a
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
[Polite Dissent (blog), "The Brief 'Golden Age of Medical Comics]
, politedissent.com, May 28, 2012, accessed Mar. 29, 2015. and
comic strip[The Archivist, "Ask the Archivist: Calling Dr. Kildare"]
The Comics Kingdom Blog, comicskingdom.com, Oct. 24, 2012, accessed Mar. 29, 2015. based on the show. A short-lived reboot of the TV series, ''
Young Doctor Kildare,'' debuted in 1972 and ran for 24 episodes.
["Young Dr. Kildare" overview]
TVguide.com, accessed Mar. 29, 2015.[ Marchessault, Janine]
"Men in White, Women in Aprons: Utopian Iconographies of TV Doctors"
in ''Figuring It Out: Science, Gender, and Visual Culture'' (ed. Ann B. Shteir & Bernard Lightman). Univ. Press of New England, 2006, pp. 315–335. .
Magazine stories and novels
Original series
The author Frederick Schiller Faust, writing as
Max Brand
Frederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 – May 12, 1944) was an American writer known primarily for his Western (genre), Western stories using the pseudonym Max Brand. He (as Max Brand) also created the popular fictional character of young ...
, created the character of Dr. James Kildare as a fictionalized version of his college friend,
Dr. George Winthrop "Dixie" Fish, a New York surgeon.
[Richardson, Darrell Coleman, ed. ''Max Brand, the Man & His Work: Critical Appreciations and Bibliography''. Fantasy Pub. Co., 1952, p. 98.] He first introduced the character in a short story, "Internes Can't Take Money", that appeared in the March 1936 issue of ''
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Food and drink
* Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo"
History
* Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953
Hotels and resorts
* Cosmopoli ...
'' magazine.
[Easton, Robert and Jane, ed. "Internes Can't Take Money" (introduction to reprint of story written by Max Brand), in ''The Collected Stories of Max Brand'' (hereinafter, ''Collected Stories'').]
Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1994, p. 217. . A second Kildare story, "Whiskey Sour", was published in ''Cosmopolitan'' in April 1938.
[Copyright Office – Library of Congress. ''Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series – Books and Pamphlets Including Serials and Contributions to Periodicals, Current and Renewal Registrations'']
Jan.–Jun. 1966, p. 1143. In these early stories, Dr. James "Jimmy" Kildare is an aspiring surgeon who leaves his parents' farm to practice at a fictional big-city hospital, and through his work, comes into contact with underworld criminals.
[Brand, Max. "Internes Can't Take Money", in ''Collected Stories'', pp. 218–235.] The first Kildare film, ''
Internes Can't Take Money
''Internes Can't Take Money'' is a 1937 American drama film directed by Alfred Santell and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Lloyd Nolan and Stanley Ridges. McCrea portrays Dr. Kildare in the character's first screen appearance. Metro-Goldw ...
'' (1937), based on the short story of the same title and made by
Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
, followed this version of the character.
[Herzog, Evelyn. "Young Detective Kildare"]
''The Mystery Fancier'' (ed. Guy M. Townsend), Mar.–Apr. 1983, pp. 1, 9.[Zodin, Susan L. "The Making of a Medical Man: Max Brand's Young Dr. Kildare", in ''The Max Brand Companion'' (ed. Jon Tuska et al.)]
Greenwood Press, 1996, p. 463. .
In 1938,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
(MGM) contracted with Faust to acquire the rights to the Kildare character along with Faust's services as a film story writer. Faust then made major changes to the character to fit MGM's idea for a new movie series, including changing Kildare's specialty to diagnostics rather than surgery, introducing the character of Kildare's superior Dr. Leonard Gillespie, de-emphasizing the criminal elements, and restarting the story from Kildare's first arrival at the city hospital. Faust (as Brand) collaborated with MGM on its Kildare film series starting with the first MGM series release, ''
Young Dr. Kildare
''Young Dr. Kildare'' is a 1938 film directed by Harold S. Bucquet and starring Lew Ayres as Dr. James Kildare, an idealistic, freshly graduated medical intern, who benefits greatly from the wise counsel of his experienced mentor, Dr. Leonard G ...
'' (1938) and continuing through ''
The People vs. Dr. Kildare
''The People vs. Dr. Kildare'' is a 1941 drama directed by Harold S. Bucquet, starring Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Bonita Granville, and Laraine Day. Dr. Kildare performs an emergency operation on a crash victim.
Plot
Ice skater Frances Marlo ...
'' (1941). During this time, Faust wrote several original Kildare stories which were first published in magazines, later republished in novel form, and made into films by MGM. The stories were written prior to the films being made, and were not published as movie
tie-in
A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prop ...
s.
[Herzog, p. 9.]
/ref>[Zodin, pp. 463–474.]
/ref>
After ''The People vs. Dr. Kildare'', Faust and MGM parted ways. Faust was not involved in ''Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day
''Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day'' is a 1941 American drama film directed by Harold S. Bucquet, starring Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, and Laraine Day. It is the eighth of a total of nine Dr. Kildare pictures made by the MGM studios. When MGM decided ...
'', '' Dr. Kildare's Victory'', or any of the subsequent films featuring Dr. Gillespie, although Faust (as Brand) continued to receive a credit for creating the characters. Faust's last two Kildare stories, "Dr. Kildare's Hardest Case" (published in 1942) and the unfinished story "Dr. Kildare's Dilemma" (posthumously published in the early 1970s), were not made into films.[Zodin, pp. 475–477.]
/ref> In 1944, Faust was killed in Italy while working as a war correspondent.
Dr. Kildare story list
This table lists the Max Brand-authored Kildare stories in chronological order of first publication.[Unless otherwise specified, all publication data in the table is sourced from the official Max Brand website at MaxBrandOnline.com. Se]
Bibliography of Max Brand works
, MaxBrandOnline.com, accessed Mar. 28, 2015. Due to the continuing popularity of the characters in film, radio and television series, many reprints, different formats, and different versions of the original Kildare books have since been released.
Aside from the Kildare stories, Faust (as Brand) wrote only one other medical story, "My People", which appeared in the August 1940 issue of ''Cosmopolitan''. "My People" featured a character, "Dr. Maynard", who was similar to Dr. Kildare. MGM acquired the rights to "My People" as a possible concept for a Kildare film, but it was never developed.
Television tie-ins
The popularity of the 1960s ''Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional American medical doctor, originally created in the 1930s by the author Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name Max Brand. Shortly after the character's first appearance in a magazine story, Paramount Pictur ...
'' TV series and its star, Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain (born March 31, 1934) is an American actor and singer, who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show '' Dr. Kildare'' (1961–1966). He subsequently appeared in several TV mini-series, such as ''Shō ...
, resulted in a number of contemporary tie-in
A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prop ...
novels by several different authors. Several were released in mass-market paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, ...
form by Lancer Books
Lancer Books was a publisher of paperback books founded by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius that operated from 1961 through 1973. While it published stories of a number of genres, it was noted most for its science fiction and fantasy, particularl ...
, while titles aimed at preteen and young teen readers were published by Whitman Publishing
Whitman Publishing is an American book publishing company which started as a subsidiary of the Western Printing & Lithographing Company of Racine, Wisconsin. In about 1915, Western began printing and binding a line of juvenile books for the Hammi ...
. The covers featured photographs of Chamberlain as Kildare, or artwork using his likeness. Known titles are listed below.
By Robert C. Ackworth:
* ''Dr. Kildare'' (Lancer, 1962)
* ''Dr. Kildare: Assigned to Trouble'' (Whitman, 1963) (with Robert L. Jenney, illustrator)
By Norman A. Daniels
Norman Arthur Danberg, better known as Norman A. Daniels and other pen names (June 3, 1905 – July 19, 1995), was an American writer working in pulp magazines, radio, and television. He created the pulp hero the Black Bat and wrote for such se ...
:
* ''Dr. Kildare's Secret Romance'' (Lancer, 1962)
* ''Dr. Kildare's Finest Hour'' (Lancer, 1963)
By William Johnston:
* ''Dr. Kildare: The Faces of Love'' (Lancer, 1963)
* ''Dr. Kildare: The Heart Has an Answer'' (Lancer, 1963)
* ''Dr. Kildare: The Magic Key'' (Whitman, 1964) (with Al Andersen, illustrator)
Films
''Internes Can't Take Money''
The character of Dr. Kildare first appeared on film in the 1937 Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
film, ''Internes Can't Take Money
''Internes Can't Take Money'' is a 1937 American drama film directed by Alfred Santell and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Lloyd Nolan and Stanley Ridges. McCrea portrays Dr. Kildare in the character's first screen appearance. Metro-Goldw ...
'', based on Max Brand's previously published short story of the same name and starring Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...
as Dr. Kildare. The plot focuses on Dr. Kildare's attempt to help a young female ex-convict (played by Barbara Stanwyck) locate her child. Paramount did not plan any further Kildare films, probably because box-office returns did not meet expectations.
MGM film series (1930s–1940s)
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
had noted the popularity of the Kildare character in pulp magazines and, following the release of ''Internes Can't Take Money
''Internes Can't Take Money'' is a 1937 American drama film directed by Alfred Santell and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Lloyd Nolan and Stanley Ridges. McCrea portrays Dr. Kildare in the character's first screen appearance. Metro-Goldw ...
,'' saw an opportunity to obtain an undervalued property and develop a successful film series. In 1938, MGM entered into a deal with author Faust (Brand) to acquire the rights to Dr. Kildare and have Faust work with MGM on developing stories for a film series. Seven Dr. Kildare films were subsequently made by MGM based on stories originally written by Faust. After ''The People vs. Dr. Kildare
''The People vs. Dr. Kildare'' is a 1941 drama directed by Harold S. Bucquet, starring Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Bonita Granville, and Laraine Day. Dr. Kildare performs an emergency operation on a crash victim.
Plot
Ice skater Frances Marlo ...
'' (1941), Faust and MGM ended their collaboration and MGM continued the series using stories by other writers, though Faust still received a credit for creating the characters.
In the MGM series, the Dr. Kildare character (played by Lew Ayres
Lewis Frederick Ayres III (December 28, 1908 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor whose film and television career spanned 65 years. He is best known for starring as German soldier Paul Bäumer in the film '' All Quiet on the Western Fr ...
) first appears as a medical intern newly arrived at a New York City hospital, where he attracts the attention of a respected older physician and skilled diagnostician, Dr. Leonard Gillespie (played by Lionel Barrymore). After becoming a physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
, Kildare faces a number of professional and personal challenges in the course of his work, while being mentored by Gillespie.
In 1942, during the making of the tenth film in the MGM series, originally titled ''Born to Be Bad'', Ayres was drafted to serve in WWII and declared himself a conscientious objector. The resulting negative publicity caused MGM to cut Ayres from the film, eliminate the character of Kildare, and change the film's focus to Barrymore's character Gillespie, eventually releasing the revamped film as ''Calling Dr. Gillespie
''Calling Dr. Gillespie'' is a 1942 drama film directed by Harold S. Bucquet, starring Lionel Barrymore, Donna Reed and Philip Dorn. This was a continuation of the series that had starred Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare. Ayres, however, had declared c ...
'' (1942). Dr. Kildare simply vanished from the series, without explanation, and for ''Calling Dr. Gillespie'' the character of a young doctor mentored by the experienced Dr. Gillespie was played by Philip Dorn
Philip Dorn (born Hein van der Niet; 30 September 1901 – 9 May 1975), sometimes billed as Frits van Dongen (his screen name for German films prior to World War II), was a Dutch American actor who had a career in Hollywood. He was best kno ...
(as Dr. John Hunter Gerniede). MGM made several more films featuring the Dr. Gillespie character mentoring various young doctors played by Van Johnson
Charles Van Dell Johnson (August 25, 1916 – December 12, 2008) was an American film, television, theatre and radio actor. He was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II.
Johnson was described as the embodiment o ...
(as Dr. Randall "Red" Adams), Keye Luke
Keye Luke (, Cantonese: Luk Shek Kee; June 18, 1904 – January 12, 1991) was a Chinese-born American film and television actor, technical advisor and artist and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.
He was known for playing Lee Chan, t ...
(as Dr. Lee Wong How), and James Craig (as Dr. Tommy Coalt).[Zodin, p. 477.]
/ref> After leaving the series, the character of Kildare was never seen, heard or so much as mentioned in any of the subsequent films.
MGM Dr. Kildare films
* ''Young Dr. Kildare
''Young Dr. Kildare'' is a 1938 film directed by Harold S. Bucquet and starring Lew Ayres as Dr. James Kildare, an idealistic, freshly graduated medical intern, who benefits greatly from the wise counsel of his experienced mentor, Dr. Leonard G ...
'' (1938), which introduced Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie
* '' Calling Dr. Kildare'' (1939)
* ''The Secret of Dr. Kildare
''The Secret of Dr. Kildare'' is a 1939 American film directed by Harold S. Bucquet and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This was the fourth of a total of ten Dr. Kildare pictures, Lew Ayres starred all but the first.
Plot summary
Dr. Leonard ...
'' (1939)
* '' Dr. Kildare's Strange Case'' (1940)
* '' Dr. Kildare Goes Home'' (1940)
* '' Dr. Kildare's Crisis'' (1940)
* ''The People vs. Dr. Kildare
''The People vs. Dr. Kildare'' is a 1941 drama directed by Harold S. Bucquet, starring Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Bonita Granville, and Laraine Day. Dr. Kildare performs an emergency operation on a crash victim.
Plot
Ice skater Frances Marlo ...
'' (1941) – the last film made with the collaboration of series creator Frederick Schiller Faust (Max Brand)
* ''Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day
''Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day'' is a 1941 American drama film directed by Harold S. Bucquet, starring Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, and Laraine Day. It is the eighth of a total of nine Dr. Kildare pictures made by the MGM studios. When MGM decided ...
'' (1941)
* '' Dr. Kildare's Victory'' (1942)
MGM Dr. Gillespie films
* ''Calling Dr. Gillespie
''Calling Dr. Gillespie'' is a 1942 drama film directed by Harold S. Bucquet, starring Lionel Barrymore, Donna Reed and Philip Dorn. This was a continuation of the series that had starred Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare. Ayres, however, had declared c ...
'' (1942), with Dr. John Hunter Gerniede (Philip Dorn
Philip Dorn (born Hein van der Niet; 30 September 1901 – 9 May 1975), sometimes billed as Frits van Dongen (his screen name for German films prior to World War II), was a Dutch American actor who had a career in Hollywood. He was best kno ...
) replacing the character of Dr. Kildare (Ayres), who was retired from the series
* '' Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant'' (1942), which introduced Gillespie's new assistants Dr. Randall "Red" Adams (Van Johnson) and Dr. Lee Wong How (Keye Luke)
* '' Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case'' (1943), with Dr. Randall "Red" Adams (Johnson) and Dr. Lee Wong How (Luke)
* '' Three Men in White'' (1944), with Dr. Randall "Red" Adams (Johnson) and Dr. Lee Wong How (Luke)
* '' Between Two Women'' (1945), with Dr. Randall "Red" Adams (Johnson) and Dr. Lee Wong How (Luke)
* ''Dark Delusion
''Dark Delusion'' is a 1947 American drama film directed by Willis Goldbeck and starring James Craig, Lionel Barrymore, and Lucille Bremer. Produced and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the last film in the Dr. Kildare film series which st ...
'' (1947), with Dr. Tommy Coalt (James Craig) (replacing Johnson's character) and Dr. Lee Wong How (Luke)
Home media
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
released the complete set of MGM Kildare films on DVD as the "Dr. Kildare Movie Collection" via their Warner Archive Collection
The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...
in January 2014. The set also included, as an extra, the 1960 unaired pilot for the ''Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional American medical doctor, originally created in the 1930s by the author Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name Max Brand. Shortly after the character's first appearance in a magazine story, Paramount Pictur ...
'' TV series starring Lew Ayres. Previously, some of the individual Kildare films had been released individually on DVD through distributors such as Alpha Video, Roan Archival Group, FilmRise
FilmRise is a New York City–based film and television studio and streaming network, which has become one of the largest independent providers of content to ad-supported streaming (AVOD) platforms, in addition to providing the largest free direc ...
and Genius Entertainment
Genius Products (also known as Genius Entertainment) was an entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States.
The ''Baby Genius'' line was one of a number of "smart toys" that came out in response to a study book about the ...
.
Warner Bros. also released the complete set of Dr. Gillespie films on DVD as the "Dr. Gillespie Movie Collection" via Warner Archive Collection in November 2014.
The single Paramount Kildare film, ''Internes Can't Take Money'', was released on DVD by Universal
Universal is the adjective for universe.
Universal may also refer to:
Companies
* NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company
** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal
** Universal TV, a ...
as part of "The Barbara Stanwyck Collection" in April 2010.
Radio
The Kildare character first appeared on radio on October 13, 1938, when Lionel Barrymore and Lew Ayres performed a scene from their soon-to-be-released film, ''Young Dr. Kildare'', on MGM's ''Good News of 1939'' radio program.
In the summer of 1949, MGM reunited Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore to record the radio series, ''The Story of Dr. Kildare,'' which used the concept and characters of the earlier ''Young Dr. Kildare'' story and did not include any of the young doctors who had replaced Kildare in the later films featuring Dr. Gillespie.[Coffin, p. 151.]
/ref> By this time, Ayres had returned to public favor after serving in WWII as a medical corpsman. Episodes were scripted by James Moser, Jean Holloway, Les Crutchfield, E. Jack Neuman, John Michael Hayes
John Michael Hayes (11 May 1919 – 19 November 2008) was an American screenwriter, who scripted four of Alfred Hitchcock's films in the 1950s.
Early life
Hayes was born in Worcester, Massachusetts to John Michael Hayes Sr. and Ellen Mabel Hayes ...
, Joel Murcott, and others. The supporting cast included Ted Osborne as hospital administrator Dr. Carew, Eleanor Audley
Eleanor Audley ( Zellman; November 19, 1905 – November 25, 1991) was an American actress with a distinctive voice and a diverse body of work. She played Oliver Douglas's mother, Eunice Douglas, on the CBS sitcom ''Green Acres'' (1965–1969) ...
as receptionist Molly Byrd, Jane Webb
Jane Webb Karyl, (August 13, 1925 – March 30, 2010) best known as Jane Webb, was an American film, radio, and voice actress, best known for her work on Filmation's cartoons.
Early years
Webb's mother was Estelle Sigrid Webb, a Swedish immigran ...
as nurse Mary Lamont, and Virginia Gregg
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
as nurse Evangeline Parker, labeled "Nosy Parker" by Gillespie. In addition, many prominent West Coast radio actors made recurring appearances, including Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas ''Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''.
Burr's early acting career included roles ...
, William Conrad, Stacy Harris, Lurene Tuttle, Barton Yarborough
William Barton Yarborough (October 2, 1900 – December 19, 1951) was an American actor who worked extensively in radio drama, primarily on the NBC Radio Network. He is famous for his roles in the Carlton E. Morse productions '' I Love a M ...
, and Jack Webb.
Each radio episode was developed as a stand-alone program rather than a serial. Episodes typically focused on Dr. Kildare dealing with a particular medical issue while jousting with eccentric patients and/or hospital administrators.[Old Time Radio Researchers Group, "Dr. Kildare – Single Episodes" (archive of 60 individual episodes), archived at https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Dr_Kildare_Singles, accessed Apr. 10, 2015.] The medical information presented was up to date for its time, and sometimes taken from real life; for example, an episode in which Dr. Kildare is forced to perform an emergency appendectomy on himself was based on a news story. At least 60 half-hour episodes were produced.
In addition to airing on the MGM-affiliated New York station WMGM, ''The Story of Dr. Kildare'' was originally syndicated to over 200 outlets in the U.S. and Canada, mostly Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...
stations. The earliest known broadcast of the program took place on September 27, 1949, on Mutual station WGN in Chicago, prior to the WMGM premiere episode on October 12, 1949. In the early 1950s, MGM offered the show to stations as part of a multiple-program package for a price lower than purchasing each program individually. However, starting in 1952, stations began to lose interest in such packages, preferring to develop their own local programming to better compete with television. Consequently, despite the show's popularity with audiences, no new episodes of ''The Story of Dr. Kildare'' were produced after 1951, although rebroadcasts of old episodes continued to air in syndication for several more years.
Television
''Dr. Kildare'' (1950s)
In 1953, Lew Ayres was approached to play Dr. Kildare in a television series, which would feature Dr. Kildare having finally taken over the practice of a retired Dr. Gillespie. After two pilots were filmed, Ayres refused to work further on the project unless the television studio refused to allow cigarette companies to sponsor the program. Ayres later explained, "My feeling was that a medical show, particularly one that might appeal to children, should not be used to sell cigarettes." The studio would not agree to reject lucrative advertising, so the project was abandoned.
''Dr. Kildare'' (1960s)
Lew Ayres reprised his role as Dr. Kildare in an unsold and unaired 1960 TV pilot directed by John Newland (with Joe Cronin as Dr. Grayson)
The second attempt at a Kildare TV show premiered on September 28, 1961. The series was a top-10 hit with audiences and ran until April 5, 1966, for a total of 191 episodes in five seasons. The first two seasons told the story of Dr. James Kildare (Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain (born March 31, 1934) is an American actor and singer, who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show '' Dr. Kildare'' (1961–1966). He subsequently appeared in several TV mini-series, such as ''Shō ...
), working in a fictional large metropolitan hospital while trying to learn his profession, deal with his patients' problems, and earn the respect of the senior Dr. Leonard Gillespie ( Raymond Massey). In the third season, Dr. Kildare was promoted to resident and the series began to focus more on the stories of the patients and their families. The success of the show (along with ABC's contemporaneous medical drama ''Ben Casey
''Ben Casey'' is an American medical drama series that aired on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaff ...
'') inspired the launch of numerous other television medical dramas in the ensuing years.
''Young Dr. Kildare'' (1970s)
In 1972, MGM Television
MGM Television Worldwide Group and Digital (alternatively Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television Group and Digital, commonly known as MGM Television and then-known as MGM/UA Television; common metonym: Lion) is an American television production/dis ...
created a short-lived syndicated drama series called ''Young Dr. Kildare
''Young Dr. Kildare'' is a 1938 film directed by Harold S. Bucquet and starring Lew Ayres as Dr. James Kildare, an idealistic, freshly graduated medical intern, who benefits greatly from the wise counsel of his experienced mentor, Dr. Leonard G ...
'', starring Mark Jenkins as Dr. James Kildare and Gary Merrill
Gary Fred Merrill (August 2, 1915 – March 5, 1990) was an American film and television actor whose credits included more than 50 feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances. He starr ...
as Dr. Leonard Gillespie. The series was not a success, and only 24 episodes were produced.
Comics
From 1962 to 1965, Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark" ...
published a ''Dr. Kildare'' comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
based on the 1960s ''Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional American medical doctor, originally created in the 1930s by the author Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name Max Brand. Shortly after the character's first appearance in a magazine story, Paramount Pictur ...
'' television series. The first issue was released April 2, 1962, as No. 1337 in Dell's ''Four Color Comics
''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic b ...
'' line, and featured a story involving a gambler checking into Dr. Kildare's hospital to hide from a hit man.["Four Color Comics 1337 (Dell, 1962)"]
, politedissent.com, uploaded Aug. 3, 2005, accessed Apr. 14, 2015.["Four Color #1337" (archive of issue)]
comicbookplus.com, uploaded Nov. 4, 2013, accessed Apr. 14, 2015. Dell subsequently continued the comic book for a total of nine issues, with the final issue appearing in April 1965. All issues had photo covers featuring Chamberlain, the star of the TV series.
A ''Dr. Kildare'' daily comic strip based on the 1960s television series, distributed by King Features Syndicate, and drawn by Ken Bald
Kenneth Bruce Bald (August 1, 1920 – March 17, 2019) was an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for the '' Dr. Kildare'' and ''Dark Shadows'' newspaper comic strips. Due to contractual obligations, he is credited as "K. Bruce" ...
also premiered on October 15, 1962.["Dr. Kildare in Daily Comic Strip"]
Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Oct. 11, 1962, p. 9. Bald was required to base his drawing of Dr. Kildare on photos of Richard Chamberlain, but made up his own drawings of other characters, including Dr. Gillespie. The daily strip, drawn by Bald, ran for over two decades until April 21, 1984, outlasting the television series (which was cancelled in 1966) by nearly 18 years. A Sunday strip also ran from April 19, 1964, to April 3, 1983. Bald retired after the cancellation of the daily strip.
library.syr.edu, accessed Apr. 16, 2015.
Franchise rights
The underlying rights to the Kildare film and television franchise are owned by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
(via Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing th ...
), with the exception of the 1937 film ''Internes Can't Take Money'', currently owned by EMKA, Ltd./Universal Television
Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a prede ...
, keeper of Paramount Pictures' pre-1950 sound library.
See also
* Doctor (novel series)
The ''Doctor'' novels are a series of 18 comic novels by British physician Richard Gordon, covering the antics of a group of young doctors. They were published between 1952 and 1986.
Books
* ''Doctor in the House''. London: Michael Joseph. 1952 ...
, a British dramatic comedy series of novels, films, and serialized television programs
* List of fictional doctors
This is a list of fictional doctors (characters that use the appellation "doctor", medical and otherwise), from literature, films, television, and other media.
Shakespeare created a doctor in his play Macbeth
''Macbeth'' (, full title ' ...
* Medical drama
* List of medical drama television programs
This is a list of medical drama television programs.
Africa
Egypt
* '':ar:لحظات حرجة (مسلسل), Critical Moments'' (''Grey's Anatomy'' adaptation) (2007)
Kenya
* ''Saints'' (2011)
Americas
Argentina
* ''Los Medicos de hoy (2000)''
...
References
Further reading
* Decter, Midge. "Who Killed Dr. Kildare?" in ''Culture in Crisis and the Renewal of Civil Life'' (ed. T. William Boxx and Gary M. Quinlivan). Rowman & Littlefield, 1996, pp. 49–56. .
* Marchessault, Janine. "Men in White, Women in Aprons: Utopian Iconographies of TV Doctors", in ''Figuring It Out: Science, Gender, and Visual Culture'' (ed. Ann B. Shteir & Bernard Lightman). Univ. Press of New England, 2006, pp. 315–335. .
External links
*
''Dr. Kildare'' comic book archive
a
Comic Book Plus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doctor Kildare
Literary characters introduced in 1937
1940s American radio programs
1950s American radio programs
American radio dramas
Mutual Broadcasting System programs
Kildare
Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 8,634 making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. The town lies on the R445, some west of Dublin – near enough for it to have become, despite being a regional ce ...
Kildare, James
American film series
American comic strips