BW - EP155—002: New York And The 1944 Radio World—Bob Hope, Joan Leslie & Dennis Day In Central Park

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Our first stop is January, 1944. We’re at Central Park. By 1944 Central Park, nearly one-hundred years old, was in the midst of renewal. Parks Commissioner Robert Moses had spent the past decade developing playgrounds, ballfields, handball courts, and other working class elements. In 1943 the restoration of the Harlem Meer was completed. "Please Keep off the Grass" signs, which had once dotted the meadows, were a thing of the past. Why are we in Central Park? Because over on the west coast, on Saturday January 22nd, Bob Hope, Dennis Day, and Joan Leslie appeared in a skit for Command Performance entitled “She Slapped His Face Under The Elevated Because He Only Had A One-Track Mind.” It was set in Central Park. In January of 1944 Bob Hope was radio’s top comedian. His own show rating that month was 34.6. More than twenty-six million people were tuning in to hear him each week. Hope spent most of his time entertaining troops. For more info on Bob Hope in 1944, please tune into Breaking Walls episode 148. Five days after D-Day on June 11th, 1944, the park opened Weapons of War: An Exhibit of the Army Service Forces on the Great Lawn. Over the next two weeks, six-hundred thousand people came to see displays contrasting America’s War Equipment with that of the Axis. The exhibit was organized by units: The Quartermaster Corps, the Chemical Warfare Service, the Medical Department, the Signal Corps, Ordnance, the Corps of Engineers, and the Transportation Corps. Each hour a flamethrower demonstration was staged for a grandstand which seated twenty-five-hundred people. The expo was in conjunction with the fifth War Bond Drive. #podcast #oldradioshows #oldtimeradio #historypodcast #oldtimeradioshows #editorial #1944 #centralpark #bobhope #joanleslie #dennisday