New Series: The Halls of Ivy

Joy and I often receive e-mails requesting new series to be added to RUSC. Sometimes it will just be a lone voice asking for a specific show that they remember from their childhood, but sometimes a steady stream of requests for a particular show come in and on a few occasions we'll receive several all in a single day. That's what has happened over the past few weeks and so I'm sure the addition of The Halls of Ivy will put smiles on quite a few members' faces.

If you've not heard The Halls of Ivy before you are in for a treat. It's a sit-com starring Ronald Colman and his wife, Benita Hume Colman.

Ronald Colman will be familiar to many of you as the Academy Award winning actor who starred in such classics as Beau Geste (1926), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizons (1937), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Random Harvest (1942), A Double Life (1947) and Champagne for Caesar (1950).

In The Halls of Ivy Coleman plays the part of Dr. William Todhunter Hall. Gale Gordon  was originally cast in this role, but it was decided that this would be confusing to listeners because, at that same time, he was playing the part of Principal Osgood Conklin in Our Miss Brooks.

The show follows the daily trials and tribulations of a college president in a small American College. It ran for two seasons from 1950 to 1952 and was aired at 8pm initially on Fridays and then on Wednesday evenings for the second season.

The show had a reputable roster of supporting actors including Alan Reed (the voice of Fred Flintstone) as Prof. Heathcliff, Arthur Q. Bryant (the voice of Elmer Fudd prior to Mel Blanc and also Doc Gamble in Fibber McGee & Molly) as Prof. Warren, and Willard Waterman (Great Gildersleeve) as Mr. Merriweather.  

I'll be putting a Halls of Ivy show up each day this week (except Wednesday) and then each week on Tuesday for at least the next few weeks. On the June 29th I will be adding the original audition show starring Gale Gordon in the starring role in memory of his passing nine years ago on June 30th, 1995.

Happy listening my friends,