''Harold Teen'' is a teenage comedy old-time radio program in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It was broadcast initially on WGN in Chicago, Illinois, and a decade later was heard nationally on the

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 ...

Format

Based on the ''

Harold Teen ''Harold Teen'' is a discontinued, long-running American comic strip written and drawn by Carl Ed (pronounced "eed"). Publisher Joseph Medill Patterson may have suggested and certainly approved the strip's concept, loosely based on Booth Tarking ...

'' comic strip, the program's episodes centered around the adventures of the title character and his friends. Other characters included best friend Shadow Smart, girlfriend Lillums Lovewell and Cynthia (who had a crush on Harold). Harold's and Beezie's fathers were the adult characters, while Beezie and Josie were two of Harold's friends. The WGN version was broadcast in 1931-1932, and the Mutual version in 1941-1942. (Although the preceding reference lists 1931-1932 for the initial run of the program, an article in the October 19, 1930, issue of the ''Chicago Tribune'' says, "... the radio audience has taken the broadcast version of Harold Teen as closely to its heart as the dashing cartoon creation of Carl Ed ...") The Harold Teen character appeared on radio again in 1948 in two genres.

''The Teen-Agers Quiz Club''

In 1948, WGN broadcast ''The Teen-Agers Quiz Club'', a program that featured competition between a team of three boys and a team of three girls, all chosen from the teenage audience. Harold Teen headed the boys' team, and Sheila John Daly (a teenage columnist for the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'') headed the girls' team.

''Swinging at the Sugar Bowl''

''Swinging at the Sugar Bowl'' featured Harold Teen as a disc jockey with music "expertly selected for 'teen-age taste'". Other characters from the comic strip also occasionally appeared on the program. Fred Reynolds (son-in-law of Teen's creator, Carl Ed) portrayed Harold Teen on the disc-jockey program. The program's debut occurred on April 3, 1948, the same day that the comic strip had Teen begin a new adventure as a disc jockey, "paralleling Harold's grafic icadventures".

Personnel

WGN

Characters and the actors who portrayed them included those shown in the table below. Source: ''Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition''Sies, Luther F. (2014). ''Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 145-146. The supporting cast included Eddie Firestone Jr., Charles Flynn, Rosemary Garbell, Bob Jellison, Marvin Miller, Loretta Poynton, Beryl Vaughn and

Willard Waterman Willard Lewis Waterman (August 29, 1914 – February 2, 1995)Cox, Jim (2008). ''This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . was an American ...

. Writers were Blair Walliser and Fred Kress. Pierre Andre was the announcer.

Mutual

Characters and the actors who portrayed them included those shown in the table below. Source: ''Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows'',Terrace, Vincent (1999). ''Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 145-146. except as noted. Blair Walliser was the director. He and Fred Kress were writers for the program.

References

{{Reflist 1931 radio programme debuts 1942 radio programme endings Mutual Broadcasting System programs Radio programs based on comic strips American comedy radio programs