LUX RADIO THEATER'S TWO HOSTS, CECIL B DeMILLE WITH JOAN CRAWFORD AND WILLIAM KEIGHLEY WITH ANN BLYTHE.

MONDAY’S ALL TIME TOP TEN

As reported several times in Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953, Monday was the night when CBS monopolized the ratings and NBC cried all the way to the bank. Leading the CBS dominance was the evening’s longtime Number One program as illustrated by its two longtime hosts pictured above, Cecil B. DeMille, (with Joan Crawford), and William Keighley, (with Ann Blythe).

That’s enough of a clue for now as we challenge you to pick Monday’s All Time Top Ten programs and/or personalities in order of their popularity.

For the most part, Blue/ABC and Mutual were simply onlookers in the Monday competition except in the area of Multiple Run programs - Monday through Friday strip shows, in particular. Multiple Runs have been excluded from this exercise which focuses on weekly programs.

Discounting the ten Multiple Runs, 18 programs and personalities registered at least three seasons in Monday’s Top Ten over the 21 years of the Golden Age. Listed below are all 18 in alphabetical order.

Here’s your challenge: Create a list of Monday’s All Time Top Ten in order of their popularity. To help with your list we’ve added the total number of Top Ten seasons that each of these attractions scored on Monday night during the Golden Age. 

               Program/Personality & Monday Top Ten Finishes

                    Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts - 6
                    Bob Hawk - 8
                    Carnation Contented Hour  - 3
                    Cavalcade of America - 5
                    Dr. I Q - 5
                    The Gay 90’s Revue - 4
                    Guy Lombardo Orchestra - 4
                    Information Please - 3
                    Inner Sanctum - 4
                    Lux Radio Theater - 18
                    My Friend Irma - 4
                    Pick Malone & Pat Padgett - 5
                    The Railroad Hour - 4
                    Screen Guild Theater aka Screen Guild Players - 6
                    The Sinclair Minstrels - 3
                    The Voice of Firestone  - 10
                    Vox Pop - 5
                    Wayne King Orchestra - 3

It’s not easy to rank Monday’s All Time Top Ten in order because once past the top four it becomes one of the most difficult nights. So here’s another clue: Eight of Monday’s All Time Top Ten were CBS attractions in their peak seasons. .

Look below the book cover and you'll see how the millions of Network Radio listeners ranked them.

 Monday’s All Time Top Ten

1/  Lux Radio Theater wasn’t just Monday’s Number One Show - it was Network Radio’s Number One dramatic program. From July 29, 1935, when it moved into the CBS schedule at 9:00, and for the next 18 years of the Golden Age, its mix of radio adaptations of hit movies performed by top flight stars was never challenged as Monday’s leader. Awarded ten points for each season, Lux’s 180 points is unmatched by any other program on any night.  (See Lux...Presents Hollywood!)

2 (tie)/  Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts was a late comer to Mondays, debuting in the 1947-48 season as the lead-in to Lux Radio Theater on CBS. Nevertheless, Godfrey’s four second place seasons and two in third totaled 52 points for the talent show that introduced professional entertainers including Pat Boone and Patsy Cline to national audiences.   (See Arthur Godfrey & CBS Packages Unwrapped.)

2 (tie)/  Screen Guild Theater aka Screen Guild Players also benefited from Lux when it was slotted on CBS at 10:00 immediately following the perennial leader. During those six seasons from 1942 to 1948, the 30 minute version of the successful Lux format scored five second place finishes and one in third for 52 points.  (See Acts of Charity.)

4/  Bob Hawk’s comedy quiz shows also registered winning seasons on the CBS Monday schedule. His glib delivery and fast paced audience participation programs enjoyed eight seasons in the night’s Top Ten - once in third place, three in fourth, three in fifth and once in seventh for a total of 51 points.

5/  The Voice of Firestone was a testament to longevity. It was a fixture on the NBC Monday schedule at 8:30 for all 21 years of the Golden Age. (It actually began on NBC four years before the era in 1928 and remained on NBC and ABC another four after it ended.) During the Golden Age, Firestone Tire & Rubber’s showcase of classical music registered ten seasons among Monday’s Top Ten programs for a total of 38 points.

6/ My Friend Irma, succeeded Screen Guild Theater on the CBS Monday schedule at 10:00 with predictable results. The one-joke sitcom starring Marie Wilson as the quintessential dumb blonde. Over the show’s four seasons in the cushy timeslot following Lux Radio Theater, My Friend Irma scored one second place finish and three in third for 33 points.  (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)

7 (tie)/  The Sinclair (Wiener) Minstrels, (so nicknamed for their originating station, WENR/Chicago), is the only Blue Network program on the list. The Gene Arnold hosted show finished in second place for three consecutive seasons, 1932 to 1935, for a total of 27 points. Then along came Lux Radio Theater on CBS at 9:00 opposite the show, and like their sponsor Sinclair gasoline, the Sinclair Minstrels’ ratings went into the tank.

7 (tie)/  Vox Pop was a 13 year fixture on Network Radio featuring audience participation interviews of a human interest nature conducted by Parks Johnson with co-hosts Jerry Belcher, Wally Butterworth and Warren Hull. The show was slotted at 8:00 over its five seasons on the CBS Monday schedule and scored 27 total points.

9/  Inner Sanctum was a mystery anthology series that often dealt in shades of dark humor. Identified by its squeaking door opening and closing and narrated by “Raymond, The (G)Host”, played to its merry macabre hilt by Raymond Edward Johnson and Paul McGrath, Inner Sanctum scored four seasons in Monday’s Top Ten on CBS for 26 points. (See Inner Sanctum on this site.)

10/  Pick (Malone) & Pat (Padgett) were two Irishmen whose blackface act made Amos & Andy sound brilliant in comparison. Known as Molasses ’n’ January on Maxwell House Showboat, Pick & Pat headlined their own half hour minstrel shows for US Tobacco’s Dill’s Best and Model pipe tobaccos beginning in 1933 on NBC. Their 1935 to 1940 run on CBS at 8:30, leading in to Lux Radio Theater, resulted in five Top Ten seasons and 25 points.

The rest of the candidates for Monday’s All Time Top Ten were: Guy Lombardo’s orchestra - 23 points; The Gay 90’s Revue - 19 points; The Railroad Hour - 17 points; Dr. IQ - 13 points; The Cavalcade of America - 9 points; Information Please - 8 points; Wayne King’s orchestra - 8 points, and Carnation Contented Hour - 7 points.

Multiple Runs: The above was limited to the weekly programs heard on Monday nights. Had it included the programs heard three to five nights a week, the All Time Top Ten would have included Lowell Thomas News in second place with 101 points, Amos & Andy in third 68 points and H.V. Kaltenborn

                Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL    Email: [email protected]