Lonely Women
{{Short description|1942-1943 radio soap opera}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox radio show
| show_name = Lonely Women
| image = Muriel Bremner and Herb Butterfield Lonely Women 1943.jpg
| caption = Muriel Bremner and Herb Butterfield in Lonely Women (1943)
| other_names =
| format = Soap Opera
| runtime = 15 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| home_station =
| syndicates = NBC
| television =
| presenter =
| starring = Betty Lou Gerson
Barbara Luddy
| announcer = Marvin Miller
| creator = Irna Phillips
| writer = Irna Phillips
| director =
| senior_editor =
| editor =
| producer =
| exec_producer =
| narrated =
| rec_location =
| rem_location =
| oth_location =
| first_aired = {{Start date|1942|06|29}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1943}}
| num_series =
| num_episodes =
| audio_format =
| opentheme =
| othertheme =
| endtheme =
| sponsor = General Mills
| website =
| podcast =
}}
Lonely Women is a radio soap opera that was broadcast in the United States during World War II. It "told of women separated from their men by war." The 15-minute program, which was sponsored by General Mills, ran one season on NBC, with its first episode broadcast June 29, 1942.Dunning, John (1976). Tune in Yesterday: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. 1925-1976. Prentice-Hall, Inc. {{ISBN|0-13-932616-2}}, Pp. 371-372.
Creator
Lonely Women was conceived and written by Irna Phillips, a prolific producer of radio soap operas. Her entry on the Jewish Women's Archive website notes her contributions to the genre as follows:Working with a full-time secretary and staff of writers and researchers, Phillips produced five daytime serials during the early 1940s. Among her most popular radio soap operas were The Guiding Light, Woman in White, The Right to Happiness, Lonely Women, and The ‘New’ Today’s Children. Known for her trademark cliff-hangers, the use of organ music to create moods, and the “crossover” (when characters from one show appeared on another), she was among the first scriptwriters to utilize the amnesia victim and the murder trial. Shunning sensationalism, Phillips preferred to focus on real-life families as they coped with such socially significant issues as juvenile delinquency during World War II, the adjustments of returning war veterans, adultery, adoption, and divorce. In contrast with other radio soap operas, which typically endorsed traditional visions of domesticity and femininity, Phillips’s serials frequently conveyed the complexities of modern women’s choices.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Irna Phillips|url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/phillips-irna|encyclopedia=Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia|accessdate=1 March 2014}}
Cast
The show's main characters were Fifth Avenue model Marilyn Larimore (played by Betty Lou Gerson) and lovesick secretary Judith Clark (played by Barbara Luddy). Although the cast was originally all-female, men were added later. Additional characters and the actor or actress who played the part were as follows:Buxton, Frank and Owen, Bill (1972). The Big Broadcast: 1920-1950. The Viking Press. SBN 670-16240-x. Pp. 144-145.
| class="wikitable" |
| Character
! Actor/Actress |
|---|
| Mrs. Schultz |
| Nora
| Nanette Sargent |
| Judith Evans
| Eileen Palmer |
| Helen
| Florence Brower |
| Peggy
| Harriette Widmer |
| Mr. Schultz
| Murray Forbes |
| Bertha Schultz
| Patricia Dunlap |
| George Bartlett
| Reese Taylor |
| Jack Crandall |
| Edith Crandall
| Muriel Bremner |
| Laura Richardson |
| Henry
| Cliff Soubier |
| Virginia Marshall
| Eunice Topper |
| Mr. Conway
| John Barclay |
| Judge Carter Colby |
| Mrs. Carter Colby
| Muriel Bremner |
| John Murray |
| Announcer |
Production
Guilbert Gibbons was the director.{{cite news |title=General Mills Serials Added To WIBA Lists |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-capital-times/162914820/ |access-date=January 13, 2025 |work=The Capital Times |date=May 30, 1943 |location=Wisconsin, Madison |page=10|via = Newspapers.com }} When the show started, it replaced Arnold Grimm's Daughter.{{cite magazine |date=June 27, 1942 |page=6 |title=Serials Won't Dry Those Tears |magazine=Billboard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwwEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Arnold+Grimm%27s+Daughter%22&pg=PP6 |accessdate=October 27, 2023 }}
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/phillips-irna Jewish Women's Archive: Irna Phillips]
{{US radio soaps}}
Category:American radio soap operas
Category:1940s American radio programs
Category:American radio dramas
{{US-radio-show-stub}}