''Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy'' was a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

adventure series which maintained its popularity from 1933 to 1951. The program originated at WBBM in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on July 31, 1933, and was later carried 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 ...

, then

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and finally

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Background

''Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy'' was a creation of

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

, a pioneer in the development of unique and compelling advertising under the stewardship of Vice-president of Advertising, Samuel Chester Gale. Gale later served as President of the

Ad Council The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governme ...

. Intending to promote breakfast cereal ''

Wheaties Wheaties is an American brand of breakfast cereal that is made by General Mills. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on its packages and has become a cultural icon in the United States. Originally introduced as Washburn's Gold Meda ...

'', Gale developed the character of Jack Armstrong as a fictitious "everyboy" whom listeners would emulate: If Jack ate Wheaties, boys across the nation would, too. Early popularity led to commissioning of a radio serial broadcast. The first sung commercial was for Wheaties in 1926. It was a spectacular hit and was sung on the Jack Armstrong show. The lyrics were: While the adventures were a product of Gale's imagination, there was a ''real'' Jack Armstrong, a member of Sam Gale's college fraternity,

Phi Sigma Kappa Phi Sigma Kappa (), colloquially known as Phi Sig or PSK, is a men's social and academic fraternity with approximately 74 active chapters and provisional chapters in North America. Most of its first two dozen chapters were granted to schools in ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. Gale met Jack while serving as a young advisor to the fraternity, and being impressed by both the red-blooded name and the "wholesome nature" of the young man, he incorporated it as the name of his new invented spokesman. The adventures which captivated listeners each week were entirely fictitious, and led to good-natured ribbing throughout Armstrong's life. Another creation of Sam Gale's fertile mind was the iconic

Betty Crocker Betty Crocker is a brand and fictional character used in advertising campaigns for food and recipes. The character was originally created by the Washburn-Crosby Company in 1921 following a contest in the '' Saturday Evening Post''. In 1954, ...

. The radio serial maintained its popularity from 1933 to 1951. The storylines centered on the globe-trotting adventures of Armstrong (played by

Jim Ameche Jim Ameche (August 6, 1915 – February 4, 1983)Cox, Jim (2008). ''This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Page 29. was an American r ...

until 1938 and later portrayed by

Michael Rye Michael Rye (born John Michael Riorden Billsbury; March 2, 1918 – September 20, 2012) was an American actor. His decades-long career spanned radio, television, animated cartoons and video games. Aside from his voice over work, Rye also acted in ...

), a popular athlete at Hudson High School, his friends Billy Fairfield and Billy's sister Betty, and their Uncle Jim, James Fairfield, an industrialist. Frequently, Uncle Jim Fairfield would have to visit an exotic part of the world in connection with his business, and he would take Jack Armstrong and the Fairfield siblings along with him. Many of the adventures provided listeners with the equivalent of a travelogue, providing facts about the lands they were visiting. The show was created by writer

Robert Hardy Andrews Charles Robert Douglas Hardy Andrews (October 19, 1903 – November 11, 1976) was a novelist, screenwriter and radio drama scriptwriter. Career Andrews began his career as a reporter for the ''Chicago Daily News'', and edited the newspaper's maga ...

. Sponsored throughout its long run by

, the program was renamed ''Armstrong of the SBI'' when Jack graduated from high school and became a government agent in the final season, when it shifted from a 15-minute serial to a half-hour complete story format. Throughout its broadcast span, the program offered

radio premiums During the time that radio programs were the dominant medium in the United States, some programs advertised "souvenirs" of the various shows, which were sometimes called radio premiums. The first of these were generally cast photographs and the lik ...

that usually related to the adventures in which Jack and his friends were involved. Each episode started a quartet quietly singing the first line of the Hudson High School Fight Song: "Wave the flag for Hudson High, boys, show them how we stand. Ever shall our team be champions, known throughout the land" (quartet continues humming)

Adaptations

Films

In the '' Jack Armstrong'' movie serial of

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...

, ace science whiz Armstrong ( John Hart) must free his friend from an island fortress after he is kidnapped by a villain who wants his help in building a

death ray The death ray or death beam was a theoretical particle beam or electromagnetic weapon first theorized around the 1920s and 1930s. Around that time, notable inventors such as Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, Harry Grindell Matthews, Edwin R. Scot ...

Books

In 1936, publishers

Cupples & Leon Cupples & Leon was an American publishing company founded in 1902 by Victor I. Cupples (1864–1941) and Arthur T. Leon (1867–1943). They published juvenile fiction and children's books but are mainly remembered today as the major publi ...

released the two volume Jack Armstrong series by Stanley J. Wallace, consisting of ''Jack Armstrong's Mystery Eye'' and ''Jack Armstrong's Mystery Crystal''.

Comics

That same year the

Parents Institute A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male t ...

began publishing its ''Jack Armstrong'' comic book which had a 13-issue run. Leslie N. Daniels, Jr. wrote the

Big Little Book The Big Little Books, first published during 1932 by the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, were small, compact books designed with a captioned illustration opposite each page of text. Other publishers, notably Saalfield, adopted t ...

, ''Jack Armstrong and the Ivory Treasure'' (1937). Daniels' tale was based on a 1937

Talbot Mundy Talbot Mundy (born William Lancaster Gribbon, 23 April 1879 – 5 August 1940) was an English writer of adventure fiction. Based for most of his life in the United States, he also wrote under the pseudonym of Walter Galt. Best known as the ...

radio script which Mundy had first written as his novel ''

The Ivory Trail ''The Ivory Trail'' is a 1999 young adult horror novel by Victor Kelleher. It follows the story of Jamie Hassan who is coming of age in a traditional mysticism bohemian family. He has a talent he does not want; reliving the lives of the long de ...

'' (1919). In 1939, Whitman released a second Big Little Book, ''Jack Armstrong and the Mystery of the Iron Key''. Bob Schoenke also drew a newspaper comic strip based on the radio series, which ran from May 26, 1947 to June 11, 1950. After three years of ''Jack Armstrong'', Schoenke replaced it with a new strip, ''Laredo Crockett'', which ran until 1964. Parents' Magazine Press also produced the comic ''Jack Armstrong Magazine'', which began in November 1947 and ran for 13 issues, until September 1949.

TV series

A short ''Jack Armstrong'' animated TV pilot was developed by

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

for a proposed television series. However, when negotiations for rights to the characters collapsed, the planned series was reworked into what became the animated adventure ''

Jonny Quest ''Jonny Quest'' is a science fiction-adventure media franchise that revolves around the titular boy named Jonny Quest, who accompanies his scientist father on extraordinary adventures. The franchise started with a 1964–1965 television serie ...

'' (1964). The ''Jack Armstrong'' footage of African natives hurling spears at two people escaping by hovercraft to an airplane survived in the closing credits for ''Jonny Quest''."Was that 'Jack Armstrong' film ever broadcast?"
a
Classic Jonny Quest FAQ
retrieved 2013-11-27.

Video games

Timothy Bottoms Timothy James Bottoms (born August 30, 1951) is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for playing the lead in ''Johnny Got His Gun'' (1971); Sonny Crawford in ''The Last Picture Show'' (1971), where he and his fellow co-stars, Cy ...

portrayed Jack Armstrong in the video game, '' American Hero'' (1995).

Honors

''Jack Armstrong'' entered the

National Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicatio ...

in 1989.

References

{{reflist

External links

Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy
at the

Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicatio ...

Great Moments in Kiddie MarketingGeneric Radio Workshop Script Library: ''Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy'' script (October 1, 1940)
American radio dramas American children's radio programs 1933 radio programme debuts 1951 radio programme endings ABC radio programs CBS Radio programs Fictional characters from Minnesota Mutual Broadcasting System programs NBC radio programs NBC Blue Network radio programs Radio characters introduced in 1933 Male characters in radio Radio programs adapted into films Radio programs adapted into comics Radio programs adapted into video games