"MR. DISTRICT ATTORNEY"

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KIDS OF THE FORTIES....AND "THE GOLDEN AGE

OF RADIO!"

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Not to worry, even though we kids of the long-ago forties 

didn't have TV'S, Atari games, stacks of DVD movies,

computers, iPads, iPhones, or regular reality TV shows...

we had the "Golden Age of Radio!"

Of course, there in our good old home town of Clovis, we

had KICA...a fine radio station! It, though, was only for local

stuff...mostly daytime. We depended on two or three long-

range heavy-duty stations from back east to supply us with

network stuff. Sometimes, in bad weather, we had a lot of 

static. These weren't strong daytime stations either---they 

went on high power at sundown.

We had probably a dozen favorite radio programs

and we listened to the radio every night of every week. 

One of my favorites was "Mr. District Attorney." It aired

on Wednesday nights at 7:30 p.m.

I didn't know at age nine, ten, or eleven what a district

attorney was but knew he chased the "mean men" kinda

like a cop.

If you think I don't remember that program,

well here is how it started: (from memory) Music--- dum

da dum...dum dum dum dum..."MR. DISTRICT ATTORNEY,

CHAMPION OF THE PEOPLE---GUARDIAN OF OUR

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS TO LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE 

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS...with Len Doyle as 'Harrington' 

and Vicki Bola as 'Mrs. Miller'." (For some reason the DA 

didn't have a name until later on.) My nine year old ears 

got Vicki wrong---I found out on researching recently---her 

name was "Vola" instead of "Bola!"

VICKI VOLA

This program ran from '39 to '52 on the radio and then on TV

until circa 1962. I never missed the show. It was well done.

Gov. Dewey of NY even cited that program a few times,

in defining the role of law.

When we get to delving into the history of old radio

during those years, we see that there were several hundred

radio shows on the air during that period.

Some we listened to regularly such as Fibber McGee and

Molly, Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Henry Aldrich, People

Are Funny, Your Hit Parade, Truth Or Consequences,

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Twenty Questions,

Jack Benny Show, the Great Gildersleeve, and Kraft

Music Hall.

FIBBER MCGEE AND MOLLY

For some reason Jack Benny came on at an unusual

time--5 p.m. on Sunday afternoons. We got Jack better

on our car radio than in the house. This was true of

many programs---the car antenna seemed to go out

and pick up the feed. Jack, of course, had the great

Rochester and Dennis Day, adding to his show!

There were a lot of other shows that for one reason or 

another we would hear only now and then: Dragnet, I

Love A Mystery, Fred Allen Show, Lux Radio Theater, 

Lum and Abner, Duffy's Tavern, and Perry Mason.

Saturday and Sunday evenings were boring as far as

radio went. Sundays did have One Man's Family, which

had a cool opening but I never could get into it. In 

later years, I was at church on Sunday evenings.

On Saturday nights you could usually get Roy Acuff

singing "Don't Make Me Go To Bed and I'll Be Good"

on The Grand Ole Opry. Locally, KICA carried a weekly

"singing"---broadcast live from the Eugene Field School

auditorium. Anyone who who wished could attend and 

sing.

The reader will laugh at this one. There was one show I

really liked to listen to, but got to only when I was sick

and out of school. It came on at 1 p.m. every day while I

was in school. Maybe I caught it some in the summer.

This show was: "Would YOU Like To Be Queen For a 

Day?"

There were any number of radio programs for kids.

They came on late afternoons, when the kids were out

of school, and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Many of these were fifteen minutes and some were 

thirty minute shows.

Here are some of then: The Shadow Knows, Sergeant

Preston of the Yukon, Superman, Tom Mix, The Green

Hornet, Smiley Burnett, Charlie Chan, and The Lone

Ranger, which of course we called: "The Long Ranger!"

Some of these fifteen minute programs were on KICA

every day from four to five. I helped my dad at the Magic 

Steam Laundry. We checked in the laundry load for the next 

day and we listened to these programs on an old radio 

that looked as if it came over on the Mayflower!

At five p.m. came Fulton Lewis, Jr., a boring news-guy

to a ten year old. I do hope they've got that highway 

problem solved down in Nicaragua--he talked about it 

for a year. Then of course, Fulton was closely followed 

by Gabriel Heatter--- as the old joke goes--- a 

"common-tater."

A word about our good friend and patriot--Bob Hope.

he followed Fibber and Molly, and came on at 8:00 p.m.

on Tuesdays, for an hour. For years his sponsor was

Pepsodent toothpaste. He really put it on the map!

During the WWII years, Bob would come on with his

show from some military base and would be doing 

double-duty: his radio  show and entertaining the

troops.

He would come on the air saying something like: "This

is Bob 'broadcasting to you from Camp Chaffee' Hope,

and welcoming you...blah..blah.." Francis Langford would

sing and Bob would banter with Jerry Cologna.

As the years went on in the forties, we little kids became

teen-agers, and were out running around at night more...

we listened less and less to our beloved radio.

One day, maybe about 1950, Jim Whatley took me and Art 

over to his house to see their new TV. There was a tall

antenna showing on top of their house. First TV I ever saw!

The reception was bad! Very bad!

I went off to college in 1951. At some point there in the dorm,

we had a TV in the lobby. The reception wasn't good there

either. I never watched it.

It was "cable" that really changed it all. Christmas of 1954

I went home from school and cable had arrived in Clovis.

My parents had cable, a new TV, new TV trays---chairs

pulled out and encircling the new TV. That whole Christmas

season we lived and breathed TV. Can you ever forget "Our

Miss Brooks?"

OUR MISS BROOKS

"Gunsmoke'" my mother's favorite TV show---Lawrence Welk,

"Have Gun--Will Travel," pro-football, and all that were not far

behind...as the good old days of radio...and the sacrifices and

strivings of the WWII years...and our own innocent childhoods...

vanished into the mists and memories of history.