From Radio and Movies to Television to Radio and Beyond

One of my earliest memories is of listening to the large console radio in our living room on Saturday nights to the old time radio programs that were still in vogue. There was Gunsmoke, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Gene Autry's Melody Ranch, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy and a host of others. Back when there was no FM radio, only AM and the stations were few and far between.

We listened to KMRC out of Morgan City, KCIL out of Houma, KTIB out of New Orleans and late on Saturday nights WSM and the Grand Ol' Opry out of Nashville.

On Sunday nights my father would pile us all into the car to take a trip to Morgan City to see a movie at the C-Wall or Opera House theater. Those were the days when the seats were uncushioned and oftentimes plastered underneath with chewing gum. The theaters had the smell of old popcorn and spilled Coca-Cola. The screens were large but not as large as they would become with Cinerama and Vista Vision among others. For 90 minutes to two hours we would view that weeks feature, along with the weekly newsreel and cartoon.

Then came 1955 and our first television and the Sunday night trip to the movies soon petered out. It wasn't long though before movies came to that small box sitting in the corner where once had stood the old radio. Saturday mornings was our favorite time because we could view live action shows reminiscent of the old movie serials and radio programs we seen and listened to.

But then came a new and marvelous invention - the transistor radio. It was a marvelous little toy that came in a variety of sizes, most being a trifle larger than a pack of cigarettes. Each one of us at one time managed to obtain one and could listen to music, news, sports and weather anywhere and anytime; as long as the batteries lasted.

It was the beginning of the age of micro miniaturization that would ultimately lead to tape recording devices the size of books (and smaller), portable televisions, personal communication devices such as transistorized CB radios, long distance walkie talkies, wireless telephones and on to cell phones. It allowed for the eventual development of personal home computers, i-pods, laptop computers and i-pads.

We were all eyewitness to a geometric expansion of technology that has filled our world with many electronic devices that seem to have captured the fascination and time of many today. Yet, there has been an alarming consequence. Many have neglected the sharpening of their own senses and have failed to understand and utilize adequately the "computer" we were all born with. Society, as a consequence seems to be a bit poorer for it and the current crisis this nation faces can be, in large measure, attributed to that rapid rise in technology and the equally rapid decline in moral values in the generations that followed us.

Still there are pockets where the moral values of the past still hold sway. Places where the beliefs of our forebears are still taught and learned by people who have not surrendered their identities or ability to think for themselves. In the end their ideas and ideals will defeat the forces that currently besiege this nation; from within and without. It has been said that faith can move mountains. Let those with faith stand together and work to achieve what is best for our nation and remove authority from the hands of those who have abused it.

Brought to you by....

In the early 1950's before television boomed and brought us commercials by the score advertising was something we viewed in magazines and other periodicals that came to our homes view mail or bought off the shelf at supermarkets, drug stores or a local general store.

These were often full page ads that spotlighted everything from automobiles to yo-yos, including the now infamous cigarette ads where doctors actually endorsed them as being beneficial to one's health. Some even become iconic and marked the changing times. They were art in their own way and even more so when pictures gave way to graphics especially designed for the product.

Here are a few examples taken from the pages of Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, TV Guide, Life, Look, Time and a host of other magazines from the early 1950's to the mid 1960's.

The Age of Space

Events that surround us on the local and world stages start to attract our attention when we begin to put away those things of our youth. Our generation may have noticed those events a bit sooner than some because we were eyewitnesses to the age of the exploration of space.

The Space Race became front page news and filled the airwaves. We watched each new launch and recovery with rapt attention as Walter Cronkite and others described in detail what was happening. We were all there when that first Mercury Redstone rocket with a small manned capsule on top rocketed off on May 5, 1961 and the name Alan Shepard became known in every household.

There were seven Mercury astronauts who’d trained to broach the final frontier of space. While this country was so engaged the Russians had begun their own program of exploration. The Cold War thus took on another dimension and the need for American supremacy in space became a priority, politically and scientifically.

We saw the trials and tribulations of the space program. The successes and disastrous failures were all there right in our living rooms on television sets that had long since replaced the old radios that once stood in their place.

How well I remember the voice of Walter Cronkite heralding each new launch in those early days and demonstrating what was going to happen using what are now primitive graphics and video. Then, they were state of the art and we marveled at them.

Those were the days long before personal computers and the internet. We saw the geometric expansion of technology that started during that time and today we have a cornucopia of electronic marvels that were only dreamed of in science fiction novels during the 1950’s.

Fifty years have come and gone and we’ve witnessed the Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs that have seen humans land on the moon, the setting up of a satellite network for communications and weather observation and by products in the medical and electronic industry. The personal computer we’ve all come to take for granted is an offshoot of the research and development that went into the effort to conquer the space beyond our planet's atmosphere.

Return with us now.....

The TV western. They are no longer on network channels due to the complaints of those who failed to understand their meaning or purpose of defining morality for a handful of generations. However, some can still be found on cable channels where they continue to flourish, so those of us who remember can return for a while and ride the range with Hoppy, Gene, Tex, Roy, Paladin, Matt Dillon, the Cartwrights, Cheyenne, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Sugarfoot, Bronco, the Range Rider and, of course, the Lone Ranger plus a host of others that are entirely too many to list at this time.

They played at various times. During the afternoon hours after school, on weekends and even in prime time. Many a student's homework suffered because they just had to see what the Cisco Kid and Pancho were up to that particular afternoon.

Of course, there were also the commercials, predominately Kellog's cereals.
Remember these?




But it went even further than that, remember those marvelous cap guns that were available mainly at Christmas time. Here is an old page from a Western Auto catalog.





You'll note that the Paladin model had a derringer and a set of calling cards as part of the entire package.

Such things today are no longer available unless you happen upon one for sale on e-bay or one of the other auction sites.

Then there were other venues that depicted the television western, most notably Dell Comics which depicted episodes in graphic form. Below are a few samples of the genre.



For close to two decades the television western reigned before they were foolishly removed by those who decried the "violence" depicted in them as being unsuitable for young viewers. A sign of things that were to come from those who'd been placed in authority and decided they knew better.

Yet, they could not remove them from the consciousness of those who viewed them and learned that actions have consequences and that those who chose to play by the rules will achieve far more than those who do not. Perhaps it was all too sharply delineated in black & white instead of the multiple shades of gray prevalent today and that's the reason they no longer ride the range as they once did on network television.

And so, pardners, it's time to saddle up ol' Paint and ride into the sunset. Until the next time, Happy Trails.

And now a word

For every thing there is a purpose and for every person there is a task to perform. Some tasks are easy while others remain difficult. This blog is one of those easy tasks but at the same time it can tend to become a bit difficult to find appropriate information to present here.

A large portion of my life has been spent in the pursuit of history. Not just any history but the things that many consider as trivial. Such things fall under the heading of Popular Culture and enjoyed a brief vogue in the nation's conscious with the popularity of Trivial Pursuit. Radio disc jockeys held daily contests using such information and early computer database programs were tested using such data.

In the weeks and months to come that information will be presented here. But not just any information. Those things from the 1950's to mid 1960's are the main focus of this blog. The years the Class of 1966 experienced through grammar school and up to graduation will be highlighted. The early radio programs on the early 50's followed by the nascent television programs that are now considered classics. The songs we listened to, the toys we played with, the comic books we read, the history we were eyewitness to and much more - all will be presented here.

So, to begin let's turn the clock back a little ways to Saturday mornings in the 1950's when live-actions program were the norm. I'm sure each of you have your own personal favorites among those below.




Of note - they were all in black and white.