Description
Book SynopsisMary Margaret McBride was one of the first to exploit the cultural and political importance of talk radio, pioneering the magazine-style format of many talk shows. This radio biography recreates the world of daytime radio from the 1930s through the 1950s, confirming the significance of radio to everyday life, especially for women.
Trade ReviewTune in and treat yourself to Susan Ware's fascinating saga of the life and work of radio personality Mary Margaret McBride. Like McBride, Ware is at once probing and entertaining as she analyzes McBrides success from the 1930s through the 1950s, restoring McBride to her rightful place as the mother of talk radio and television. -- Lizabeth Cohen,author of A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
Sincere and sometimes self-effacing, Mary Margaret was the Oprah of her day- her name a household word that might be forgotten if not for Susan Ware's carefully researched and charmingly likeable biography. * American Journalism *
Drawing on archives that include McBrides radio interviews, as well as letters from former listeners, Ware begins with a description of McBrides radio show when it was at its height. * Booklist *
Ware has restored McBride to a rightful place in broadcasting history. * Columbia Journalism Review *
While there have been more than a few fine radio histories written by professional and nonprofessional historians in the last forty years, the last decade must be the golden age of radio scholarship...and Susan Ware's Its One OClock and Here is Mary Margaret McBride continues this current focus in radio scholarship. * Journal of American History *
Table of ContentsContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Prologue: Voice of AmericaPART I The Height of the Program1 "Here Comes McBride" 2 Mary Margaret's Radio Technique3 "Under Cover of Daytime" 4 Mary Margaret's Bond with Listeners 5 "The Appetite as Voice" 6 Doing the Products PART II Becoming Mary Margaret McBride7 Listening to Lives 8 A Missouri Childhood 9 Stella 10 The Journalist and the Writer 11 Men, Marriage, and Sex 12 Af?uence and Depression 13 "I Murdered Grandma" 14 Citrus Follies 15 The War Years PART III Transitions16 Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary Margaret McBride, and Postwar Politics 17 Television 18 The Last Show: May 14, 1954 19 Cookbooks, Columns, and Commentary 20 "Good-bye, Y'all" Epilogue: Talk Shows, Then and Now Notes Index About the Author
