Nila Mack (October 24, 1891 in

Arkansas City, Kansas Arkansas City () is a city in Cowley County, Kansas, United States, situated at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Walnut River in the southwestern part of the county. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,974. The n ...

– January 20, 1953 in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

) was the creator and director of ''

Let's Pretend ''Let's Pretend'', created and directed by Nila Mack, was a CBS radio series for children. Prior to being renamed ''Let's Pretend'', the program had a variety of titles and formats. In its most famous form, ''Let's Pretend'', the Peabody Award- ...

'', the long-running CBS radio series for children. She was the Director of Children's Programs for CBS from 1930 to 1953. Born Nila Mac, she was an only child. She added a "k" to her name because she felt "Mac" looked like a nickname. However, some sources, including her obituary in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', said her birth name was Nila MacLoughlin.''

'', 21 January 1953, p. 31. Her mother, Margaret, was a dance instructor. Her father, Don Carlos, was a railroad engineer who died in a train accident when Nila was very young. After his death, she attended an Illinois finishing school, Ferry Hall in Lake Forest, and later took classes in both Arkansas City and Boston, financing her education by playing piano at her mother’s dance studio.

Vaudeville to Broadway

She joined a traveling repertory company where she met and married actor Roy Briant. She worked in vaudeville and spent six years with the Nazimova company, appearing with that troupe on Broadway in ''Fair and Warmer'' and ''A Doll’s House'', as well as the play and film versions of ''

War Brides War brides are women who married military personnel from other countries in times of war or during military occupations, a practice that occurred in great frequency during World War I and World War II. Among the largest and best documented examp ...

'' (1918). When her husband died in December 1927, after 13 years of their marriage, Mack took various acting jobs and wrote comedy for

Nydia Westman Nydia Eileen Westman (February 19, 1902 – May 23, 1970) was an American actress and singer of stage, screen, and television. Early years Westman's parents, Theodore and Lily (Wren) Westman were active in vaudeville in her native New Yo ...

and

Fanny Brice Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedienne, illustrated song model, singer, and theater and film actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. S ...

Radio

“Broadway prepared me for radio,” said Mack, who was cast in CBS’ experimental ''Radio Guild of the Air'', the series that evolved into the '' Columbia Workshop'', and a CBS comedy show, ''Nit Wits''. She scripted and narrated the ''Night Club Romances'' series.She Made It: Nila Mack
/ref> In 1930 Mack returned to Arkansas City to care for her ailing mother and began working at the local radio station. However, after six months, she was contacted by CBS to take over its children’s program, ''The Adventures of Helen and Mary''. Mack moved back to New York and began to retool the struggling program. Cast member Gwen Davies recalled that initially Mack “was terrified about working with children, because she never had any.” Eventually, she changed the content and casting, assembling a company of child actors, and retitling the series as ''Let's Pretend''. The focus was on fantasy. She recalled, “We were deep in the depression when ''Let’s Pretend'' began… I remembered fairy stories that filled me with wonder when I was very young. I figured that if these lively pieces with a message at their hearts had meant so much to me, other children would like them, too.” In addition to original scripts, the series broadcast more than 300 fairy tale adaptations. Cream of Wheat signed on as the program's sponsor. Cast member Arthur Anderson wrote that she realized: :...how much better would be a cast of child actors, who could convey much more than grownups the openness, innocence and simplicity she wanted for the show... Besides Nila Mack’s scripts, her genius for choosing and working with her juvenile cast was the main reason the show survived longer than any other dramatic program on American radio. Nila Mack was... a lone woman in a man’s world.

Awards

With the success of ''Let's Pretend'', CBS appointed her Director of Children's Programs. The series ran from 1934 to 1954, garnering numerous awards, including two Peabody Awards, a Women’s National Radio Committee Award and five Radio Daily Awards. Nila Mack died of a heart attack in her

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

apartment on January 20, 1953.

References

Watch

Actor Larry Robinson on Nila Mack as a director.

Listen to

External links

Nila Mac
at IMDb (Internet Movie Database)
Nila Mack papers, 1910-1953
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Nila Mack photographs
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Internet Archive of ''Let's Pretend'' ProgramsPaley Center Tribute to Nila MackNila Mac
portrait gallery at NY Public Library Billy Rose Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Mack, Nila 1891 births 1953 deaths People from Arkansas City, Kansas American radio actresses Peabody Award winners American stage actresses American silent film actresses Vaudeville performers 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Arkansas