Breaking Walls

Hey everyone, James Scully here. This Saturday, December 16th, is the 188th anniversary of the Great Fire of 1835. It burned the entire financial district in New York City to the ground. The fire was so big it could be seen from Philadelphia, 90 miles away. I’m doing two walking tours, one at 12PM and one at 4PM on the anniversary in conjunction with the audio fiction soap opera set in 1835 NYC I'...

One of the radio veterans featured in this episode was Byron Kane. Another was Paula Winslowe. By October 1973, it was obvious that Jay Kholos couldn’t afford to keep funding new episodes of The Zero Hour thanks to AFTRA’s changing terms. He looked to make a deal with a network. The Mutual Broadcasting System and C. Edward Little were interested. A deal came together quickly. A press conference an...

Janet Waldo, famous for her portrayal of Corliss Archer as well as Judy Jetson, Penelope Pitstop, and Emmy Lou on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, was featured in this episode of The Zero Hour. With AFTRA’s moving goal posts meaning that producing more episodes of The Zero Hour would cost significantly more money, in the fall of 1973, Jay Kholos had to look for either a potential production pa...

A year after his re-election, President Nixon was knee-deep in the Watergate scandal. On October 10th, 1973, VP Spiro Agnew resigned, pleading no contest to charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme in which he accepted nearly thirty-thousand dollars in bribes while governor of Maryland. According to The New York Times, Nixon “sought advice from senio...

Once Jay Kholos sold the show to various radio stations, it was generally up to those stations to sell the show to sponsors. In New York, The Zero Hour was running on WRVR 106.7-FM. WRVR-FM was initially a public radio station owned and operated by The Riverside Church in New York. It began broadcasting on January 1st, 1961. The Riverside Church, located in Morningside Heights, is an interdenomina...

Arizona Republic, June 11th, 1973 “If you loved the old radio shows, you'll like what KOOL-FM has in store for you. The station has bought the brand-new radio drama series, The Zero Hour, which promises to revive the good old days, but in a modern format. “Announcing the new series was E. Morgan Skinner Jr., promoted last week from KOOL-AM account executive to KOOL-FM assistant station manager. Ju...

November 1st, 1973. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City. We’re listening in on a press conference hosted by the Mutual Broadcasting System. They’ve purchased the rights to air The Zero Hour from the just-heard Jay M. Kholos. The Zero Hour has thus far been hosted by Rod Serling and directed by Elliott Lewis. It’s Mutual’s first dramatic radio show in nearly twenty years. As Mutual Broadcastin...

In Breaking Walls episode 145 it’s the fall of 1963 and network radio drama is dead while American life is changing. If you’re listening to this in real time, this month marks the sixtieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. To go beyond its public horror and understand American society three generations ago, we’ll focus on Jean Shepherd. —————————— Highlights: • I, Libertine • Jean Sh...

Well, that brings our look at November 1963 through the eyes of Jean Shepherd and President Kennedy to a close. Frankly, I wasn’t completely sure what this episode would become until I finished producing it. Speaking of anniversaries, we have one in December that’s a bit more recent and much happier if you like radio drama. Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of The Z...

On the morning of Tuesday November 26th, 1963 all regularly scheduled TV and radio programming resumed in the U.S. President Johnson issued NSAM 273, a modification of the American policy in Vietnam. Included in President Kennedy’s original memo, was Johnson adding the word “win” to the U.S. objective. At the same time, The American satellite Explorer 18 was launched to study the magnetic field ar...

On Friday November 22nd, 1963, New York’s Village Voice co-founder Dan Wolf’s office was swarmed with people. Journalist Jerry Tallmer later remembered being there, talking and grieving, when in burst Jean Shepherd, excited and full of fire. Shep said, “Wouldn’t you know! Wouldn’t you know! It was a Fair Play for Cuba guy who did it!” Lee Harvey Oswald had connections with the Fair Play for Cuba g...

On Monday, November 25th, 1963, John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. NBC Radio was on hand with press coverage of the event. Millions of viewers watched the funeral on live TV. Present were foreign dignitaries from ninety-two countries, including eight heads of state and ten prime ministers. In addition to President Johnson, former Presidents Harry Truman an...

On Saturday November 23rd, 1963, with the country in a state of shock and mourning, Music Director Erich Leinsdorf led the Boston Symphony orchestra in the compositions of Gluck, Wagner, and Beethoven. John Kennedy was the grandchild of former famous Boston mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald. The concert was given at Symphony Hall in honor of the slain son of Boston. Elsewhere, numerous famous peo...

All regularly scheduled network programming from every radio and TV station around the country was immediately suspended. This audio comes from shortly after 2PM eastern time from ABC. Right after the shooting, witness Howard Brennan notified the police that he was sitting across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, watching the President’s motorcade go by. He heard a shot come from a...

On Friday, November 22nd, 1963, President Kennedy awoke at 7:30AM. He ate a light breakfast with Jackie before going out by himself to the square in front of his hotel to address a crowd of a few thousand people. Someone shouted, “where’s Jackie?” He pointed to their eighth floor suite and replied "Mrs Kennedy is organizing herself, It takes her a little longer, but of course she looks better than...

On the morning of Thursday, November 21st, 1963 President Kennedy had breakfast with his children. He said goodbye to his daughter Caroline when she left for school at 9:15. President Kennedy arrived at his office for the last time at 9:55. The President left the White House for the last time at 10:50AM. He flew to Andrews Air Force Base where he and the First Lady departed for San Antonio Texas....

On November 19th, 1963, nine days before Thanksgiving, President Kennedy received a turkey from the Poultry and Egg Board. The President always looked forward to New England Thanksgivings. That same day, in the concluding event for the three-day centennial celebration of the Gettysburg Address, former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the crowd at the rededication for the Gettysburg Na...

On Sunday, November 17th, 1963, Frank McGee signed on for NBC’s Monitor with a look at Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Lincoln’s famous speech was about to celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary. Meanwhile, President Kennedy was in Florida, unofficially on the 1964 campaign trail. On Saturday November 16th, President Kennedy traveled to Cape Canaveral where he inspected the Saturn Control C...

James Scully here. I wanted to let you know that I’m doing a webinar this Wednesday, November 8th, 2023 at 5:30PM with the New York Adventure Club on the CBS Talent Raids of 1949 and how they drastically changed the broadcasting landscape just as TV was about to boom. Included here in the show notes is a link where you can buy tickets, which are only $10 — https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-cbs-tale...

On Saturday November 9th, fans rioted at Roosevelt Field Raceway in Long Island, battling police and setting fires. At least fifteen were hurt and the head of security died of a heart attack during the riot. Sunday November 10th was the evening before Veteran’s Day. On NBC, Frank McGee signed on for Monitor with a salute to the holiday. Andrew Pearson had correspondence from Vietnam, while Preside...

As November 1963 began, President Kennedy had emergency meetings on Vietnam. He also received members of the US Industrial Payroll Savings Committee and had meetings on the goings on in Berlin. Meanwhile, The U.S. Secret Service concluded that the more secure and the larger of two locations for the President’s upcoming fundraising luncheon in Dallas would be the "Women's Building" at Fair Park at...

Support For Breaking Walls is provided by our patrons. If you like the documentaries I've been producing, you can become a show supporter for as little as $1 here — https://www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakers By 1960, Shep’s homespun wit could be tweaked depending on what time of the day he took to the air. At that time he was broadcasting on both Saturdays and Sundays during the middle of the day for...

Jean Shepherd was born on July 26th, 1921 on the South Side of Chicago to Jean and Anna Shepherd. He grew up in Hammond, Indiana, which according to Shep was a “tough and mean” industrial city. As an adolescent, Shepherd worked as a mail boy in a steel mill. He began his radio career at the age of sixteen, doing weekly sportscasts for WJOB in Hammond. That job led to juvenile roles on network radi...

In Breaking Walls episode 144 we present part two of our mini-series on radio and the world in the fall of 1957. —————————— Highlights: • The 1957 World Series • Unit 99 • Sputnik, Bing Crosby, and Current Events • The Eternal Light and The Glastonbury Cows • Algeria Aflame • Stan Freberg • Bill Kemp, ABC, and More News • School Integration Update • Sorry, Wrong Number • You Bet Your Life • NATO,...

Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of John Kennedy’s Assassination, we spotlight Jean Shepherd and his November 1963 broadcasts. —————————— Highlights: • The 1957 World Series • Unit 99 • Sputnik, Bing Crosby, and Current Events • The Eternal Light and The Glastonbury Cows • Algeria Aflame • Stan Freberg • Bill Kemp, ABC, and More News • School Integration Update • S...