''Clara, Lu, 'n Em'' is a radio

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

, which first aired on June 16, 1930, over

WGN-AM WGN (720 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a talk radio format. WGN's studios are in the Chicago Loop, while the transmitter is in Elk Grove Village. WGN also features broadcasts of Chicago Blackhawks hockey ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. The show was picked up by the NBC Blue radio network and premiered at 10:30 p.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...

on January 27, 1931. Thus, it became the first nationally broadcast radio soap opera. When ''Clara, Lu 'n Em'' was moved to a regular daytime time slot on February 15, 1932, it became the first networked daytime soap opera. The first ''daytime'' serial drama-by-installment program, network or otherwise, is widely considered by scholars of the genre to be ''

Painted Dreams ''Painted Dreams'' is an American radio soap opera that premiered on WGN (AM), WGN radio, Chicago, on October 20, 1930 and last aired in July 1943. It is widely considered by scholars of the genre to be the first daytime soap opera or drama-by-i ...

,'' when it premiered on WGN's local feed in October 1930. ''Clara, Lu, 'n Em'' continued in various forms through the 1930s and early 1940s 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 radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Co ...

and

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

, finally airing as a syndicated series in 1945.

Background

The series began as a

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

sorority sketch by Louise Starkey (Clara), Isobel Carothers (Lu) and Helen King (Em). Rejection by several radio executives in Chicago led the trio to WGN. Program manager Henry Selinger was skeptical of their working without scripts, but their audition convinced him to let them perform without pay. They eventually began writing their own scripts and receiving pay. Super Suds was a sponsor of the program as early as August 1930.

NBC

As interest grew, they were sponsored by

Colgate-Palmolive The Colgate-Palmolive Company, commonly known as Colgate-Palmolive, is an American multinational corporation, multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in ...

and were heard evenings on the NBC Blue Network from January 27, 1931, to February 12, 1932, before moving to weekdays from February 15, 1932, to March 23, 1934. From March 26, 1934, to January 10, 1936, they ran on the NBC (Red) network. On June 26, 1936, they returned to the NBC Blue Network, doing a weekly evening series, with music by

Ted Fio Rito Theodore Salvatore Fiorito (December 20, 1900 – July 22, 1971),DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 95. known professionally a ...

. The 30-minute program was sponsored by Frigidaire dealers.

Characters and hiatus

Story lines centered on three women who lived in a small-town duplex. Clara Roach and her family lived on one side of the duplex, Emma Krueger lived with her family on the other side. Widow Lulu Casey lived upstairs with her daughter Florabelle. When Carothers suddenly died January 8, 1937, at age 32, Starkey and King decided not to continue.

Return on CBS

When the program returned with Starkey and King in 1942 on CBS, another of their Northwestern University friends, Harriet Allyn, portrayed Lu. The show ran three times a week during the daytime.

Syndicated version

In 1945 a syndicated version of the show had a brief run. Allyn continued in the cast as Em, along with

Fran Allison Frances Helen Allison (November 20, 1907June 13, 1989) was an American television and radio comedienne, personality, and singer. She is best known for her starring role on the weekday NBC-TV puppet show '' Kukla, Fran and Ollie'', which ran fr ...

as Clara and Dorothy Day as Lu.

References

Listen to

''Clara, Lu, and Em'' 1930 audition show
{{US radio soaps 1930s American radio programs 1940s American radio programs American radio dramas American radio soap operas NBC radio programs CBS Radio programs NBC Blue Network radio programs 1930 radio programme debuts