Blondie (radio series)

Blondie is a radio situation comedy adapted from the long-run "Blondie" comic strip by Chic Young. The radio program ran on several networks from 1939 to 1950.
After Penny Singleton was cast in the title role of the feature film "Blondie" (1938), co-starring with Arthur Lake as Dagwood (the first in a series of 28 produced by Columbia Pictures); she and Lake repeated their roles December 20, 1938, on "The Pepsodent Show starring Bob Hope". The appearance with Hope led to their own show, beginning July 3, 1939, on CBS as a summer replacement for "The Eddie Cantor Show". However, Cantor did not return in the fall, so the sponsor, R.J. Reynolds' Camel Cigarettes chose to keep "Blondie" on the air Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Camel remained the sponsor until June 26, 1944.
In 1944, "Blondie" was on the NBC Blue Network, sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive's Super Suds, airing Fridays at 7 p.m. from July 21 to September 1. The final three weeks of that run overlapped with "Blondie"'s return to CBS on Sundays at 8pm from August 13, 1944, to September 26, 1948, still sponsored by Super Suds. Beginning in mid-1945, the 30-minute program was heard Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Super Suds continued as the sponsor when the show moved to NBC on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. from October 6, 1948, to June 29, 1949.
When Singleton left the radio series in the mid-1940s, Patricia Lake replaced her as the voice of Blondie for the remaining five years of the show, opposite her real-life husband Arthur Lake. Ann Rutherford and Alice White were also heard as radio's Blondie. In 1954, Lake also co-starred with her husband in an early television sitcom he created called "Meet the Family".
In its final season, the series was on ABC as a sustaining program from October 6, 1949, to July 6, 1950, first airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. and then (from May) 8:30 p.m. The radio show ended the same year as the "Blondie" film series (1938–50).
Others in the cast: Leone Ledoux (Alexander and Cookie Bumstead), Tommy Cook (Alexander as of May 1943), Larry Sims (Alexander as of Summer 1946), Jeffrey Silver (Alexander by 1949), Marlene Aames (Cookie by 1946), Norma Jean Nilsson (Cookie in 1947), Joan Rae (Cookie after 1947), Hanley Stafford (J.C. Dithers), Elvia Allman (Mrs. Dithers), Frank Nelson and Harold Peary (Herb Woodley), Arthur Q. Bryan and Harry Lang (Mr. Fuddle), Dix Davis (Alvin Fuddle), Mary Jane Croft (Harriet), Veola Vonn and Lurene Tuttle (Dimples Wilson). Harry Lubin, Billy Artz and Lou Kosloff supplied the music.
Columbia theatrical series.
"Blondie" was successfully adapted into a long-running series of 28 low-budget theatrical B-features, produced by Columbia Pictures, also starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. Beginning with "Blondie" in 1938, the series lasted 12 years, through "Beware of Blondie" (1950). Faithfulness to the comic strip was a major concern of the creators of the movie series. Little touches were added that were iconic to the strip, like the appearance of Dagwood's famous sandwiches - and the running gag of Dagwood colliding with the mailman amid a flurry of letters, (which preceded the title sequence in almost every film). The films were typical of family-fare situational comedies of the period, and are endearingly funny in a low-key way. As the series progressed, the Bumstead children grew from toddlers to young adults onscreen. Larry Simms as Baby Dumpling (later known as Alexander) reprised his role in all the films. Daughter Cookie was played by three different child actresses, beginning in 1942 with her first appearance (as an infant) in "Blondie's Blessed Event", the eleventh entry in the series. Daisy had pups in the twelfth episode, "Blondie for Victory" (1942). Rounding out the regular supporting cast, character actor Jonathan Hale played Dagwood's irascible boss, J.C. Dithers. The Bumsteads' neighbors, the Woodleys, were oddly missing from the series.
All 28 Blondie movies are available in one multi-disc DVD package from many distributors.
Television Program.
Pamela Britton portrayed Blondie in the 1957 TV series opposite Arthur Lake. Patricia Harty had the title role in the 1968 TV series. Neither "Blondie" TV series lasted a full season.
Further reading.
"Blondie Goes to Hollywood," by Carol Lynn Scherling. Albany, 2010. BearManor Media. .