The Jumbo Fire Chief Program

The Jumbo Fire Chief Program
Other names The Circus Concert
The Fire-Chief Program
The Fire-Chief Show
Jumbo Fire-Chief Program
Genre Comedy
Running time 28-31 minutes
Country United States
Language(s) English
Home station WEAF
Syndicates NBC Red Network
Starring Jimmy Durante
Donald Novis
Gloria Grafton
Announcer Louis A. Witton
Written by Ben Hecht
Charles MacArthur
Directed by Billy Rose
Adolph Deutsch (music director)
Recording studio The Hippodrome, New York City
Air dates October 22, 1935 (1935-10-22) (rehearsal show)
October 29, 1935 (1935-10-29) to January 14, 1936 (1936-01-14)
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 12 known episodes
Opening theme Over and Over Again by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart
Ending theme The Jumbo Fire Chief Program ending theme
Sponsored by Texaco

The Jumbo Fire Chief Program was an American old-time radio program starring Jimmy Durante, Donald Novis and Gloria Grafton. The series was broadcast from WEAF radio and syndicated nationally over NBC radio. The series was based on Billy Rose's musical circus act Jumbo which premiered on Broadway in November 1935 and a continuation of sponsor Texaco's The Fire Chief, a radio program starring Ed Wynn that ended its three-year run several months before Jumbo' s premiere. The program starred Jimmy Durante as Claudius "Brainy" Bowers,[1] overzealous circus promoter of the Consodine circus act who usually gets the show in financial crisis due to his over exaggeration of the show's profits, and Donald Novis and Gloria Grafton as young love interests Matt Mulligan, Jr. and Mickey Consodine. Consodine is the daughter of John Consodine, the owner of the circus act.

The radio program broadcast 12 episodes[note 1] over the NBC from October 22, 1935January 14, 1936. The series was recorded from the New York Hippodrome with an average audience of 4500–5000 people each week.[2]

Background

Ed Wynn's The Fire Chief

The series originated from Ed Wynn's departure from NBC's The Fire Chief in early 1935 and the show's sponsor Texaco wanting to continue the series.

Texaco and NBC premiered The Fire Chief in 1932. Comedian Ed Wynn played the title role of the Fire Chief. The series was popular and one of the first radio programs to be recorded before a live studio audience. Wynn left the program temporarily in 1933 when, in September of that year, Wynn along with Hungarian-born violinist Ota Gygi founded his own radio station, the Amalgamated Broadcasting System. The station lost money and went out of business five weeks later in November 1933.[3][4] He returned to The Fire Chief which continued until being cancelled in early 1935.

Billy Rose's Jumbo

On November 22, 1935, Billy Rose's musical Jumbo premiered at The Hippodrome in New York City. The musical told the story about a financially strapped circus. The musical also starred Durante, Novis and Grafton. At the end of each performance, Durante would lay down on the stage and permit a live elephant to place its foot upon his head. The musical closed on April 18, 1936, after 233 performances.[5]

Texaco's Jumbo Fire Chief

The Texas Company, aka Texaco, decided to continue their sponsored Fire Chief with The Jumbo Fire Chief Program. The Jumbo Fire Chief Program used the title of its predecessor and the premise of Jumbo. The serialized version of Jumbo premiered on October 29, 1935, from the Hippodrome and was broadcast over NBC. The series shared the same premise as the musical, which was the tale of a financially strapped circus and the tale of two young love interests; Matt Mulligan, Jr., (Donald Davis), and Mickey Consodine, (Gloria Grafton).[6] The series failed to reach popularity amongst viewing audiences and only aired 12 episodes before being cancelled on January 14, 1936.[note 2]

Cast and characters

Unheard characters

Notes

  1. Several sources list the number as 19 but all agree of 12 surviving episodes broadcast between October 1935January 1936. The other seven either do not have title or have forgotten titles.
  2. This date is disputed amongst radio historians. While most sources and radio historians list the date of January 14, 1936, as the air date of the last episode of the program, some sources and historians believe the air date of the program's last episode to be February 25, 1936, due to 7 episodes of the program that have either unknown or forgotten titles.

References

  1. "Billy Rose's Jumbo Texaco Fire Chief Program (starring Jimmy Durante)- Complete 1935–36 Series 12-Rare Old Time Radio Shows Plus 2 Classic Jimmy Durante songs- "Frosty The Snowman" (1950 single) & " Isn't It a Shame Christmas Only Comes Once A Year" (from the 1950 film "The Great Ruppert") 1 MP3". Amazon.com. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  2. "Trouble with the IRS". The Jumbo Fire Chief Program. Season 1. Episode 1. New York City. October 29, 1935. NBC. WEAF. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  3. Elizabeth McLeod, Tonight The Program's Gonna Be Different: The Life and Times of Ed Wynn, the Fire Chief
  4. Sterling, Christopher H. (March 1, 2004). Encyclopedia of Radio 3-Volume Set. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-1354-5648-1.
  5. Hischak, Thomas S. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia (2007), Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-313-34140-0. p. 140
  6. "The Fire-Chief Concert Radio Program". www.vintageallies.com. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  7. Jimmy Durante: His Show Business Career, with an Annotated Filmography and Discography by David Bakish, p. 25
  8. Rayno, Don (December 19, 2012). Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, 1930–1967. Scarecrow Press. p. 379. ISBN 978-0-8108-8322-2. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  9. Sher, Aubrey J. (August 15, 2013). Those Great Old-Time Radio Years. Xlibris Corporation. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-4836-7909-9. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
  10. 1 2 "Radio Review: The Jumbo Fire Chief Program". www.greatdetectives.net. Retrieved May 10, 2015.

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