One Man's Family
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One Man's Family was a long-running American radio-TV dramatic series, created by Carlton E. Morse.
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[edit] Radio
One Man's Family debuted as a radio series on April 29, 1932 in Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco, moving to the full West Coast NBC network the following month, sponsored by Snowdrift and Wesson Oil. On May 17, 1933, it expanded to the full coast-to-coast NBC network as the first West Coast show heard regularly on the East Coast. The show was broadcast daily in 15 minute installments.
Set in the Sea Cliff area of San Francisco, California, the radio plotline centered around stockbroker Henry Barbour, his wife Fanny and their five children (chronologically: Paul, Hazel, the twins Clifford and Claudia, and Jack).
Over the 27-year run, J. Anthony Smythe starred as Henry Barbour. The first Fanny was Minetta Ellen (1932-35), followed by Mary Adams. Michael Raffeto had the role of author-aviator Paul, but a voice problem led to his replacement in 1955 by Russell Thorson. Hazel was played by Bernice Berwin (1932-58). Beginning in 1932, Barton Yarborough portrayed Clifford, but the character was dropped from the storyline after Yarborough's death from a heart attack on December 19, 1951. Kathleen Wilson introduced the character of Claudia in 1932, continuing in the role until Claudia married in August 1943 and was written out of the story. When Claudia returned (1945-59), she was played by Barbara Fuller. Jack was portrayed by Page Gilman.
The supporting cast in the 1930s and 1940s included Bill Bouchey, Tom Collins, Virginia Gregg, Bill Herbert, Wally Maher, Helen Musselman, Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Paterson, Ken Peters, Frank Provo, Jean Rouverol, Naomi Stevens, Janet Waldo and Ben Wright.
The radio version ran for 3,256 episodes, finally ceasing production in 1959. One Man's Family was the longest running serial drama in American radio broadcasting, edging out Ma Perkins (although Ma Perkins produced over twice as many episodes). Organist Paul Carson, who played the background music and the opening theme, "Destiny Waltz" (1932-41), composed the show's later theme, "Waltz Patrice" (aka "Patricia"). Among its other trademarks, episodes were introduced typically as if chapters from books.
At around the time the radio version expired, another radio team, Bob and Ray---already noted for poking fun at such radio programs as Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons ("Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons") and Backstage Wife ("Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife")---launched a dry continuing satire of One Man's Family, "One Fella's Family," as part of their daily 15-minute slot on CBS. "One Fella's Family" featured the two comedians as the Butcher family and lanced even the radio classic's signature chapter-and-verse introductions, with Ray Goulding giving the fictitious episode title and describing it, for example, "... which is taken from Book Vee Eye, Chapter Ex Eye, Pages 2,3,5,11 and 243."
[edit] Television
By 1949, when television expressed interest, the show focused on the Barbour children. Oldest daughter Hazel had twins, Claudia was rebellious and involved in romances, Claudia's twin brother Cliff had been married three times, and Jack was a 36-year old father of six daughters, including triplets.
One Man's Family had the rare distinction of airing both in primetime and daytime television. The first TV version (November 4, 1949 - June 21, 1952) ran in primetime once a week for a half-hour and reverted the stories back to the 1932 storylines. Hazel was a 28-year old who yearned for marriage, Cliff and Claudia were students at Stanford University and Jack was ten years old. The primetime version focused on Fanny's attempts to mediate between her old-world husband and her independent-minded children.
The primetime series featured such future stars as Eva Marie Saint (Claudia), Tony Randall (Mac), Mercedes McCambridge (Beth Holly #1), and Frankie Thomas (Cliff Barbour #1). Claudia married daredevil Johnny Roberts. The show was live, which led to a notorious blooper when Claudia and her father-in-law (Ralph Locke) went to track him down. The characters were in an airplane when Locke forget his lines. After a few moments, he yelled at Saint, "Well, if you can't say anything, I'm leaving!" and walked off the set, in spite of his character being in the middle of a flight! Lest viewers presume the character had killed himself, Locke was in his seat the following day. The theme music was "Journey into Melody."
The daytime show (March 1, 1954 - April 1, 1955) carried many of the same storylines as the primetime version but with a different cast. Anne Whitfield, who played Claudia's daughter Penelope on the radio version, simultaneously played Claudia on the TV show. It also had different theme music, "Deserted Mansion."
All versions of the show were written, cast, produced and directed by Carlton E. Morse.
[edit] Listen to
[edit] External links
- Barbour family tree
- Classic Themes
- Did You Know?
- IMDB
- Meet the Barbours
- Museum of the City of San Francisco
- TV.com
