Nila Mack
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Nila Mack (October 24, 1891, Arkansas City, Kansas - January 20, 1953, New York, New York) was the creator and director of Let's Pretend, the long-run CBS radio series for children. Born Nila Mac, she added a "k" to her name because she felt "Mac" looked like a nickname.
She was an only child. Her mother, Margaret, was a dance instructor. Her father, Don Carlos, was a railroad engineer who died in a train accident when Nila was very young. After his death, she attended an Illinois finishing school, Ferry Hall in Lake Forest, and later took classes in both Arkansas City and Boston, financing her education by playing piano at her mother’s dance studio.
She joined a traveling repertory company where she met and married actor Roy Briant. She worked in vaudeville and spent six years with the Nazimova company, appearing with that troupe on Broadway in Fair and Warmer and A Doll’s House, as well as the play and film versions of War Brides (1918). When her husband died after 13 years of their marriage, Mack took various acting jobs and wrote comedy for Nydia Westman and Fanny Brice.
“Broadway prepared me for radio,” said Mack, who was cast in CBS’ experimental Radio Guild of the Air, the series that evolved into the Columbia Workshop, and a CBS comedy show, Nit Wits. She scripted and narrated the Night Club Romances series. In 1930 Mack returned to Arkansas City to care for her ailing mother and began working the local radio station. However, after six months, she was contacted by CBS to take over its children’s program, The Adventures of Helen and Mary. Mack moved back to New York and began to thoughtfully retool the struggling program. Cast member Gwen Davies recalled that initially Mack “was terrified about working with children, because she never had any.” Eventually, she changed the casting, content and title.
With the success of Let's Pretend, CBS appointed her Director of Children's Programs. The series received numerous awards, including two Peabody Awards, a Women’s National Radio Committee Award and five Radio Daily Awards.
Nila Mack died of a heart attack on January 20, 1953.
