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“Propaganda Must Be Painless”: Radio Entertainment and Government Propaganda During World War II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Gerd Horten
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Extract

For a jittery radio industry concerned about the future of American broadcasting in the early months after America's entry into World War II, William B. Lewis came as a godsend. As head of the Domestic Radio Division of the Office of Facts and Figures (OFF), and later the Office of War Information (OWI, June 1942), Lewis, a former vicepresident of CBS, reassured the industry that the commercial structure of American radio would remain unchanged. In his first meeting with network executives and radio sponsors and advertisers in January 1942, he outlined his pragmatic approach to radio's war effort. As he argued, “radio is valuable only because of the enormous audiences it has created.” During wartime, his government office planned to use radio's popularity without unnecessarily disrupting radio structure and schedule: “Let's not forget that radio is primarily an entertainment medium, and must continue to be if it is … to deliver the large audiences we want to reach.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Prospects , Volume 21 , October 1996 , pp. 373 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

NOTES

1. One fear was that advertisers would withdraw from sponsorship and leave radio financially strapped. The other main concern was over how much government agencies would intervene in the broadcasting industry because of the wartime emergency. While a government-run radio was never a serious threat, the Communications Act of 1934 provided the legal basis for a government takeover of broadcasting during World War II, and thus could be used as leverage on the part of government agencies. Section 606 specified that during wartime and national emergencies “the President may suspend or amend, for such time as he may see fit, the rules and regulations applicable to any or all stations within the jurisdiction of the United States as prescribed by the Commission.” See Paglin, Max D., A Legislative History of the Communications Act of 1934 (New York: Oxford Univesity Press, 1989).Google Scholar

2. Speech by Lewis, William B., 01 20, 1942Google Scholar, National Archives, Record Group 208, Entry 93, Box 602 (hereafter, for example, cited as NA 208–93–602), folder “Association of National Advertisers.”

3. For an extensive discussion of this development, see Winkler, Allan, The Politics of Propaganda: The Office of War Information, 1942–1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978)Google Scholar; and Gosnell, Harold F., “Obstacles to Domestic Pamphleteering by OWI in World War II,” Journalism Quarterly 23 (12 1946): 360–69.Google Scholar

4. The most important studies on World War II media propaganda in the United States are by Fox, Frank W., Madison Avenue Goes to War: The Strange Military Career of American Advertising, 1941–1945 (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Honey, Maureen, Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda During World War II (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984)Google Scholar; Koppes, Clayton R. and Black, Gregory D., Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies (1987; rept. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Roeder, George H. Jr., The Censored War: American Visual Experience During World War Two (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993)Google Scholar; and Doherty, Thomas Patrick, Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture and World War II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).Google Scholar

Interestingly enough, international government radio propaganda during World War II has also been analyzed more than its domestic counterpart: Soley, Lawrence C., in Radio Warfare: OSS and CIA Subversive Propaganda (New York: Praeger, 1989)Google Scholar, reveals the extensive covert international U.S. radio operations during World War II; Shulman, Holly Cowan's The Voice of America: Propaganda and Democracy, 1941–1945 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990)Google Scholar is the best study on the overt wartime propaganda of U.S. international broadcasting.

5. Field, Harry and Lazarsfeld, Paul F., The People Look at Radio (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1946), vii.Google Scholar

6. William B. Lewis, Meeting of Regional Consultants, December 28–30, 1942; NA 208–93–599, folder “Regional Meeting.”

7. Fibber McGee and Molly, 12 1, 1942Google Scholar; Micro 475, State Historical Society of Wisconsin; hereafter cited as SHSW.

8. Lingeman, Richard R., Don't You Know There's a War On? The American Home Front, 1941–1945 (New York: Putnam, 1971), 238–39.Google Scholar

9. For a discussion of the show's history and characters, see Stumpf, Charles and Price, Tom, Heavenly Days! The Story of Fibber McGee and Molly (Waynesville, N.D.: World of Yesterday, 1987).Google Scholar

10. Stumpf, and Price, , Heavenly Days! 45, 165Google Scholar; and McDonald, J. Fred, Don't Touch That Dial! Radio Programming in American Life, 1920–1960 (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979), 132–45.Google Scholar

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12. Report of letter by Paul B. West, President of Association of National Advertisers to large radio sponsors, entitled “Cooperation of Commercial Radio Users with Government,” 01 12, 1942Google Scholar; NA 208–93–602, folder “Association of National Advertisers.”

13. “Proposal for Radio Coordination,” Meservey, Douglas to Lewis, William, 12 17, 1941Google Scholar; NA 208–93–596, folder “Douglas Meservey.”

14. Speech by Lewis, W., 01 20, 1942Google Scholar; NA 208–93–602, folder “Association of National Advertisers.”

15. As Alan Brinkley has argued, the defining aspect of the cooperation between the private economic sector and the U.S. government during the war was the pursuit of a conciliatory approach by the FDR administration, which led to the “abdication of power to corporate figures.” Rather than keeping strong regulatory powers in the hands of government agencies like the War Production Board (WPB), Brinkley charged that the WPB became the primary example of the “corporate ‘capture’ of state institutions” during World War II (Brinkley, Alan, “The New Deal and the Idea of the State,” in The Rise and the Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930–1960, ed. Fraser, Steve and Gerstle, Gary [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989], 102–3).Google Scholar

The OWI and radio propaganda were part and parcel of this larger process. For an analysis of the political implications of the relationship between commercial sponsorship and radio propaganda, see Horten, Gerd, “Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Radio Propaganda During World War II” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1994)Google Scholar, especially chapter 6 and the conclusion.

16. “How Government Messages Will Be Allocated,” 04 1942Google Scholar; NA 208–93–598, folder “Allocation Plan.”

17. Seymour Morris to Stuart Sherman, October 22, 1942; NA 208–103–645, folder “Policy;” and Archibald MacLeish to F.D.R., April 8, 1942; NA 208–93–598, folder “Allocation Plan.”

18. Koppes, Clayton R. and Black, Gregory D., Hollywood Goes to War, 141.Google Scholar

19. Landry, Robert J., “Radio Showmanship,” Variety, 05 13–June 17, 1942.Google Scholar

20. Fibber McGee and Molly, “Sugar Substitute,” 05 5, 1942Google Scholar; Recorded Sound, LC, LWO 15731, 18A1.

21. Quoted in Landry, , “Radio,” 06 3, 1942, 35.Google Scholar

22. Landry, , “Radio,” 06 17, 1942, 25.Google Scholar

23. Seymour Morris to R.D. Boss, Proctor and Gamble, October 14, 1942. Apparently Boss channeled the request to his superior, as the response came from William B. Ramsey, General Manager of Proctor and Gamble: Ramsey to Morris, October 21, 1942; NA 208–103–645, folder “Policy.”

24. Menkin, L. to Zachary, G., 11 6, 1942Google Scholar; NA 208–93–602, folder “Pedlar and Ryan.”

25. NA 208–1-3, folder “Organization 1–2,” Radio Bureau 1942 & 1944.”

26. Wolff, Nat to Lewis, William B., 08 18, 1942Google Scholar; NA 208–93–604, folder “Nat Wolff.”

27. Jack Benny Show, 10 18, 1942Google Scholar; UCLA, Special Collections, Jack Benny Collection, Box 26.

28. Fred Allen is quoted in Josefsberg, Milt's, The Jack Benny Show (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1977), 60Google Scholar. For Benny's comment, see Wertheim, Arthur Frank, Radio Comedy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 131.Google Scholar

29. Josefsberg, , Jack Benny Show, 54Google Scholar. On the popularity of his greeting, “Jell-O again,” see Herman, Jim, The Great Radio Comedians (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970), 156.Google Scholar

30. “Surfeit with War on the Radio,” Surveys Division Memorandum 47, January 13, 1943; NA 208–103–643, folder “Meetings.”

31. Ibid., 16.

32. “Surfeit with Government War Messages,” Report by the Bureau of Special Services in connection with the Denver National Opinion Research Center, December 6, 1943; NA 44–164–1799, “Surveys Division Memo 71,” 1, 9.

33. Ibid., 15.

34. Jack Benny Show, 02 8, 1942Google Scholar; UCLA, Special Collections, Jack Benny Collection, Box 25.

35. Jack Benny Show, 11 29, 1942Google Scholar; UCLA, Special Collections, Jack Benny Collection, Box 26.

36. Wilde, Larry, The Great Comedians Talk About Comedy (New York: Citadel, 1967), 41.Google Scholar

37. I found the following studies particularly helpful for understanding humor and comedy: Bier, Jesse, The Rise and Fall of American Humor (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968)Google Scholar; Morreall, John, Taking Laughter Seriously (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983)Google Scholar; Levine, Lawrence W., “American Culture and the Great Depression,” Yale Review, 74 (Winter 1985): 196–223Google Scholar; Dudden, Arthur Power, ed., American Humor (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987)Google Scholar; and Nelson, T. G. A., Comedy: An Introduction to Comedy in Literature, Drama and Cinema (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990)Google Scholar. For the quotation, see Morreall, , Taking Laughter Seriously, 114. Bier as well as Nelson have also commented on this unifying function of laughter.Google Scholar

38. Quinn, Don, “Situation Comedy: Tis Funny, McGee!,” in Lawrence, Jerome, Off Mike: Radio Writing by the Nation's Top Radio Writers (New York: Sloan and Pearce, 1944), 37.Google Scholar

39. Jack Benny Show, 05 23, 1943Google Scholar; UCLA, Special Collections, Jack Benny Collection, Box 27.

40. Texaco Star Theater, 01 3, 1943Google Scholar; quoted in Havig, Alan, Fred Allen's Radio Comedy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), 208Google Scholar. For discussions of the frequent censorship of Allen's comedy, see 79 and 101. Havig presents a couple of examples of Allen's cooperation with the OWI (159, 207).

41. Allen, Fred, Treadmill to Oblivion (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954), 212.Google Scholar

42. Josefsberg, , Jack Benny Show, 94.Google Scholar