Radio Movies in the Golden Age

Major motion pictures focusing on radio first appeared during the height of Hollywood's studio system in the 1930s and gave fans their first chance to see moving pictures of radio celebrities. Virtually all were comedies or musicals, designed to get the audience's mind off Depression-era realities.

Foremost among these was the series of films beginning with The Big Broadcast (1932), which included George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Bing Crosby as employees of a struggling radio station whose survival depends on a group of radio celebrities, including Kate Smith, Cab Calloway, the Boswell Sisters, Arthur Tracy, and The Vincent Lopez Orchestra. This box office success led to a sequel, The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935), which finds Burns and Allen with a contraption known as a Radio Eye (what we now call television) on which various stars appear, including Ethel Merman. Still another sequel, The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936) followed, wherein Jack Benny is now the radio boss and Martha Raye his secretary; Burns and Allen returned, appearing once again with a host of stars, including Benny Goodman, Benny Fields, and Leopold Stokowski and his orchestra. The final installment, The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1937), finds W.C. Fields playing twins who race ships that are powered by electricity supplied from radio broadcasts; it starred Raye, as well as Dorothy Lamour, Shirley Ross, and Bob Hope, who sang what became his signature "Thanks for the Memories" for the first time.

Another series of films that tried to mimic the success of the Big Broadcast began with The Hit Parade (1937), in which a talent search for radio stars turns up a series of celebrities, including Duke Ellington. Sequels included Hit Parade of 1941 (1940), Hit Parade of 1943 (1943), Hit Parade of 1947 (1947), and Hit Parade of 1951, (1950) and continued the trend of story lines designed to pack in as many acts as possible.

In the same genre of movies about radio stars was The Great American Broadcast (1941), which centers on a love triangle between a young woman and two World War I veterans who enter the radio business together, later to become rivals. The finale hinges on a scheme by one of the men to reunite the woman and his wartime friend after they have parted ways, deciding to step aside and let the true lovers reconcile. His scheme involves organizing the first nationwide radio broadcast, an idea originally conceived by his war buddy, who he knows will surface to take credit and be reunited with his love. The broadcast itself features many top-name acts, including Kate Smith, Eddie Cantor, Rudy Vallee, and Jack Benny.

During this era a number of movies were also produced based upon radio programs themselves, giving audiences a chance to see their favorite radio characters in action. These include a movie version of Ed Wynn, The Fire Chief simply titled The Chief (1933) and starring Wynn. Several films featured characters of the radio comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, featuring the radio stars Jim and Marian Jordan. These films started with featured roles for the Jordans, playing their radio characters, in This Way Please (1937), followed by starring roles in Look Who's Laughing ( 1941), co-starring Edgar Bergen and Lucille Ball, Here We Go Again (1942), with Bergen, Gale Gordon and radio's Great Gildersleeve star Harold Peary, and Heavenly Days (1944). Peary enjoyed a string of films based upon The Great Gildersleeve, including Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943), Gildersleeve's Bad Day (1943), and Gildersleeve's Ghost (1944). Finally, there is My Friend Irma (1949), based on the radio sitcom of the same name and starring the radio show's lead actress Marie Wilson. The film featured the debut pairing of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, as did a sequel, My Friend Irma Goes West (1950). Band leader and radio star Kay Kyser also appeared in several motion pictures.

What The Big Broadcast and its progeny were to 1930s and 1940s radio stars, a series of rock-and-roll radio movies starring renowned disc jockey Alan Freed was to 1950s rock acts. These films included Rock Around the Clock (1956), Don't Knock the Rock (1956), Rock, Rock, Rock (1956), Mister Rock and Roll (1957), and Go, Johnny, Go! (1959). Showcasing the likes of Bill Haley and the Comets, The Platters, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and The Moonglows, these movies featured plots that were mainly designed to pack in as many rock performances as possible. Freed's disc jockey career was itself the subject of a later film titled American Hot Wax (1978).

Radio Drama on Film

Foremost among films examining challenges facing radio's producers was FM (1978). The movie focuses on the successful program director of the number one rock-and-roll station in Los Angeles and his efforts to keep the station's sound from being too influenced by the commercial interests of its corporate owners. The overall theme of the movie is addressed in a pivotal scene, when the new sales manager toasts "to profit, and the quality it brings," to which the program director replies "to quality, and the profit it brings." Highlighting the extreme personalities of the station's air staff, the movie also foregrounds the influence radio has on its community, as the disc jockeys strike rather than give in to over-zealous commercial interests-a move that inspires hundreds of loyal fans to join the protest outside the station.

Director Oliver Stone critically examines the shock jock phenomenon in Talk Radio (1988), a film about a late-night talk show host based upon a play by Eric Bogosian. An intense, intelligent examination of hatred, violence, and loneliness in America, all of which are exhibited by callers to a radio program called Night Talk, the film is also a study of the host himself, who must suffer the consequences of provoking his late-night listeners to anger. The shock jock is ultimately killed by one of his violent listeners. The film critically examines the capacity of provocative radio talk show hosts to empower society's most troubled members, under the guise of providing entertainment and exploiting radio's First Amendment privileges.

Good Morning Vietnam (1987), perhaps the best known of all the films treated here, was directed by Barry Levinson and tells the partially true story of a wise-cracking, quick-witted disc jockey who joins the staff of Armed Forces Radio Saigon and uses his comic personality to entertain and unite the troops. From presidential impersonations to crass humor, the newcomer (played by Robin Williams) delivers a high-powered series of gags and thinly veiled criticisms of the war, in the process receiving bags-full of fan mail and the contempt of his humorless supervisors. The film also shows a more serious side, as the comic announcer confronts the ethics of army censorship of radio news.

Private Parts (1997) was shock jock Howard Stern's homage to his own rise to power. Based upon his book and starring Stern, the film recounts his career in the radio business, from his first problems with management at a local station, to meeting his long-time on-air companion Robin Quivers, to his network radio days and run-ins with the FCC. A somewhat one-sided retelling of the story, the film presents Stern as a working-class hero who does what he must to entertain the masses, much to the chagrin of his uppity and uptight management counterparts.

Foremost among films focusing on radio's listeners is Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987). A nostalgic look at World War II era radio, the film depicts Allen's childhood reminiscences of the role radio played in the lives of his Rockaway Beach family. A mock Martian invasion helps an Aunt see the cowardice of her date; the fantasy of a masked avenger allows a boy to imagine a life apart from suburban humdrum, much as exotic South American music allows his cousin to do the same; game shows or a ventriloquist's act provide occasions for family bonding or discussion; news bulletins following rescue efforts to save a young child who fell down a well help the family put their own petty squabbles in perspective; and war reports help a nation define an era. Throughout the film, Allen affords radio a ubiquitous presence, fondly recalling its role in every aspect of his childhood and lamenting that his memories of radio and its era fade more with every passing year.

Radio's influence in uniting communities is depicted even in films not principally focused upon radio. Hence, the cult classic The Warriors (1979) depicts a DJ, shown only as a pair of lips speaking into a microphone, as she helps gang members throughout New York City track and hunt members of the Warriors, who are falsely accused of murdering the charismatic leader of the city's most powerful gang; ultimately, she apologizes to the gang for the urbanite community's error. Another inner city set film that highlights radio's role in a community is Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989), a drama about the eruption of racial tension on a city street in Brooklyn. The disc jockey of the street's storefront radio station serves as a source of news, reason, and inspiration for the community, helping to calm tension and keep the community apprised of neighborhood happenings. Finally there is George Lucas' classic American Graffiti (1973), wherein the omnipresent rock music and hip chatter of archetypal disc jockey Wolfman Jack set the mood of the time and binds together the community of young adults coming of age.