Father's Day!
Well it's nearly here, the one day of the year which the fathers of the nation can officially call their own. It's Father's Day!
For all of the men who have brought up children or who have acted as a Father figure to someone in their lives be it step-father, favorite uncle, big brother or grandfather, I offer you my warmest regards. Hopefully I have covered every good man out there!
Quite surprisingly it wasn’t a man who invented Father’s Day, but a woman. In 1909 Sonora Smart Dodd, who had been raised by her father after the death of her mother during the birth of their sixth child, drew up a petition that recommended the introduction of a national Father’s Day celebration.
She hoped to have the first of these special days on the first Sunday in June of 1910 because that was her Father’s birthday, but red tape (yes, they even had red tape back then) held things up so it ended up being on the 19th June instead.
The first Father’s Day was only celebrated in Spokane, but the idea slowly spread. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge gave his official support to the idea (good for him) and then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation on the matter (good for him too) and this was ratified in 1972 by Richard Nixon who finally granted Sonora Smart Dodd’s wish and established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.
Joy has lined up a whole heap of wonderful Father's Day old time radio delights for your entertainment, which you can access by clicking here..
I was going to do a poll to see who is your favorite OTR dad, but when I've asked this question in the past, although it's generally a very close fought battle between the top two, the winner is always ... (drumroll please) Throckmorton Gildersleeve!
Some of you may not have listened to any of the Great Gildersleeve series yet (you really should!), so I'll tell you a little bit about the main character and winner of the coveted RUSC 'Favourite OTR Dad' title, Throckmorton P Gildersleeve.
He first appeared in the Fibber McGee and Molly series in 1937, however, in 1941 he became the first radio character to spin off into his own radio program, leaving Wistful Vista to become the Water Commissioner of Summerfield, and to raise his orphaned niece and nephew, Marjorie and Leroy.
Family life was initially quite difficult for him to adapt to, but he soon began to settle into his guardian's role, taking pride in developing his young charges into responsible American citizens, often struggling with teenage angst, and the kind of situations we would still find awkward today! The entire comedy series is light, fun, and heart warming, and I'd recommend that you listen to a few of the shows if you haven't already.
If you are still young enough to have your father and are wondering what to do for him to make him feel special on Father's Day then why not sit back and enjoy some shows from the golden age of radio together.
You could even purchase a gift subscription to RUSC by clicking here, to give three months, or even a whole years worth of good clean entertainment to your lovely Dad, or perhaps for those old-school folks like myself, download some shows from RUSC on to a CD and pop it in with his card.
Whatever you choose to do this weekend, Joy and I hope you have a great time!
Happy listening my friends,
P.S. Why not share these shows with a friend? Simply click on the "Share this show with a friend" link for each show