Show AL VENLY V DAYS FOR TOE THE JORDANS and jim bibber mcgee and moll ion molly to yon hit tile top in radio radi after fter years of labor loye love and laughter i i WILLIA WILLIAM 51 C UTLEY Y rhy lly dont you forgot forget IV about that guy jor asked ma marion rion a SWIM suitor oil about lu 18 years ago iii never V amount to anya if U YOU yo marry him 9 living out of a suit 3 be e all your life it for there thare was bitica t droscoll biscoll would rath M barlon ion D ane done tor for tile the rest res t of at her I 1 01 live out of a suitcase with isi jim a good thing for you and it anis ta well romance L too into happy and q bloss blossomed omec marriage we would have yi without two of the most do da ito 0 visitors humored and welcome iu I coll at our homes fibber fabber slid and molly e jordan lived out alon log and jim worked like the and 61 tesse good many years be benj BI for or a gribber i fibber an and d molly they bo be one of the five 0 or r six top radio teams in the rural and 1 a and small communities the they ay ant TEL weve got a bigger enci ecce than even jack denny benny Is the way jim puts it fibber born on F farm arm I 1 wonder wilder 1 either they ve al aten 16 m mall all town folks e ven even bih gh lived in chicago for time like fibber and mol fcc Jordans themselves are as bilm as a the eggs in a homemade home made de one indication Is suM clent ii the leaner years when they times time worked for 35 a week and their two children orine seventeen leven leen and jim leen ved in an I 1 district on chii I 1 no northwest west side where they i lot of friendly neighbors ordinary folks like thern them koben aben they suddenly ud denly found iles in the big money class abst did they buy a fine man bic x the gold coast with more nil a than plo closets sets they did they built a little seven room in their old neighbor 1 it was ROME HOME to them and wis in important abec bet or jim it if you prefer was on a form farm near peoria ill worked on it until he was re he be had bad seven brothers and n to help him out marion Matlon was wit ifa girl the youngest save ill I 1 family of 13 there here hardly lives a gal who I 1 like to look into a mirror is fat a while and marion was no alion tion at sixteen she was a girl and had a voice bough to land her in the iw h choir it was at choir n day that she caught her willing caking a peek into the glass f the piano and when she 2 J IT A M al va r these candid camera shots of jim and her are typical 4 day at henic fal youth of seventeen look 1 f shoulder her heart beat gong ahe sh e decided right fi d kt it jim jor jordian dan for or was wa the man for her wa vt been a two way mir ff JIM jordan decided the Y ext 10 alth a quartet tet which with tho the choln choir it S i fast date on new eve hile barlon cant ap pp 88 awe whenever she thinks think aty still bull tease f want Wc abet lent nt along with us hian borne afterwards dl 11 she SS ell after 20 odd dd years y ro still make 3 him hot un collar 1 ohl here now ow he ducut l ephr that al out thia th frig od ain rh A ay A anyway jou you axy aks ayour after big brother along 31 years they c courted bek 5 in 1 I rn arrles and d tor for 19 1 ashore thel their r marria tred 1 marriage g re I 1 4 wa P 1 let led vaudeville with witha A ts 11 y 11 1 night with ault 0 sang or on 0 the o chau 31 and later apana Apa started a mcany nv 3 that wan alu toured d tho the experience exPer lence which ev eloped 1 act bcd some t of the tourist flavor I 1 tile and molly V ir their jim e as s a replacement placement pa m N I 1 k fibber mcgee and 1011 y for the ono one hundred twenty second engineers but sickness prevented tits his seeing service and ho he was in a hospital when the armistice wis was signed meanwhile was marion back homo home in peoria merely twiddling adling her thumbs awaiting his return heavenly dayal says bays she 1 I was that busy teaching piano to 50 pupils some good and sonic some bad I 1 have a moment to they decided to get out of tho the show business when jim camo back but it was no go jim very successful finding steady work and with his brothers in law constantly taunting when are you going to got get a job he soon found himself behind the ille footlights again ile he and marion had real success with their concert company and no one complained that he was shiftless any more an agent gets fired billed as a 15 alece ensemble the company was literally that a 15 piece affair but there were only six people in it some of them played several instruments this led to complications an advance man mail preceded them on tour and arranged for their billing when they arrived they usually met a stage crowded with 15 chairs and a manager stirred with indignation at finding only six musicians at this point jim would become highly incensed at the audacity of his agent in permitting so gross a mf representation misrepresentation s loudly and righteously in the sight ot of all concerned he would discharge the agent marion anti and jim estimate that this hardy soul was fired in such a manner twice a week for four years there followed more success this time as a n harmony team in vaudeville then the night which was to open up new and miraculous vistas to them they were playing cards with friends in chicago in 1924 an old battery radio set was flatting blotting away conversation was all but impossible as what might or might not have been a harmony team struggled g led with the notes in the upper ranges jim wins a bet jim stood it as long as he could then dad rat lie he cried wo we can do better than ills his host wal a doubting thomas with a bit of sporting blood niad and bet jim they so the next day found them seeking an audition at the station to which they had been listening old WIBO the top ot of the dial t in chicago they clicked immediately and toon soon made their debut in a commercial program on tile the ether waves as the ohenry lenry twin sat 10 a broad broadcast castl t they collected the 10 they had bet too those were the days before anybody got fat eating on a radio stars salary marlon and jim for eight months two houra a day bor 35 a week they were known under dozens dozen s of different names and it Is a tribu tribute to to their amazing zing versatility that they did riot not run 0 out ut of things to do they sang songs acted out little skits dialogs and monologs mono logs and marion prayed the colesto but vaudeville still offered more money and reluctantly they iel tithe microphone for another year tn in the theaters then when went on the air they returned never t to 0 leave the character of fibber 1 I 1 C may bo be traced by I 1 listeners ls to that of an old man named luke in one of their early broad casts c a st S molly Is much the same character as mrs smith in their old skit tile the smith family they had another program called the Smack outs 1 which they intend to bring back to radio some day all tills this time it might bo be supposed that the national networks were overlooking them in tact fact it has often been reported that they never had a chance at the networks until fibber and molly came to life nothing could be further from the truth jim insists they simply made so much money off local broadcasts plus theater appearances that they avoided the networks when NBC bought they went to where they could remain a local team but when NBC bought as well jim had to hit the national hookup as mr twister marion lias ilas many tongues the first fibber mcgee and molly broadcast was in march 1935 the show was a natural from the start that it has remained so in fact has never ceased to add to its popularity testifies to jim jordans showmanship the sponsor wanted to base the show on fibbers Fib bers elsh fish stories and outlandish lies but jim saw that the listeners would soon tire of them and refused instead we hear this quaint irish couple genuine witty and at all times sympathetic surrounded by some of the funniest characters rad radio loever ever has known fans have learned to lovo love and laugh at the little girl whose tiny voice can ask the most embarrassing questions on earth geraldine the tittering bride grandma the old lady with the chorus girl philosophy mrs weary bottom who always seems as it if she will surely run down like an old time phonograph before she finishes a sentence but never does quite and a lid molly herself an able foil for the cocky mcgee all of these and more are a re played by marion hersel fl horatio K boomer the small time big shot the raspy russian aso says hallo kal hallo Tova richt the scotchman and other dialect characters are played by young bill thompson whom jim discovered silly billy watson the politely uproarious comedian Is hugh studebaker who nevor never acted at all until he got into radio pe ie was a pipe organist studebaker also has a show of his own bachelors children garpo the announcer who loves to spoil fibbers Fib bera bers jokes by sneaking in a commercial announcement Is harlow wilcox who is harold isbell in real life fibber of 0 course Is jim jordan coln coin many catch phrases 1 find no mother in law joks jokes on the fibber mcgeo mcgee and molly program 11 taint tunny funny mcgeee molly said and that was that and never hear bear anything on the program that you want your children n to hear marion and jim havo have children of their own don quinn who has written the jordan scripts script for or seven years hw ha aken a lesson from the dionest honesco to goodness romance that has followed the pair throughout their married life you will never hear any serious arguments between fibber and molly its very apparent that they lovo love each other and you love them for it seldom has any troupe tn in the show business coined so many catch phrases that have become bywords by words throughout the notion nation among all classes of people today you may hear repeated almost any time mol lys heavenly days mcgeee and talant funny mcgeee Mc Geel fibbers Fib bers dad rat the little girls 1 I bet berchal chal and grandmas grandeas Grand mas ill hi skip PY ayi riding on top of the world right now the jordans but would they quit if they could just give nie me a chance says jim boy id back where I 1 started right like ke V to go d 1 id alilce dl like ilce to live an on a little farm by n lake and tadej ife easy heavenly kica venly dayal says marion you bet jim replies CD western newspaper union |