This Is Nora Drake
{{Short description|American old-time radio soap opera}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox radio show
| show_name = This Is Nora Drake
| image = Mary Jane Higby, 1953 (cropped).jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Mary Jane Higby, one of the actresses who portrayed the title character
| other_names =
| format = Soap opera
| runtime =
| country = United States
| language = English
| home_station =
| syndicates = NBC
CBS
| television =
| presenter =
| starring = Charlotte Holland
Joan Tompkins
Mary Jane Higby
| announcer = Bill Cullen
Peter Roberts
| creator =
| writer = Julian Funt
Milton Lewis
| director = Dee Engelback
Art Hanna
Charles Irving
| senior_editor =
| editor =
| producer =
| exec_producer =
| narrated =
| rec_location =
| rem_location =
| oth_location =
| first_aired = {{Start date|1947|10|27}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1959|01|02}}
| num_series =
| num_episodes =
| audio_format =
| opentheme =
| othertheme =
| endtheme =
| sponsor = Toni hair care products
Bristol-Myers
| website =
| podcast =
}}
This Is Nora Drake is an American old-time radio soap opera. It was broadcast from October 27, 1947, to January 2, 1959, first on NBC and later on CBS.{{cite book |last1=Dunning |first1=John |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |date=7 May 1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-984045-8 |pages=665–666 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22This+is+Nora+Drake+soap%22&pg=PA665 |access-date=October 28, 2021 |language=en}} Beginning in May 1948, it was also carried on CFRB in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.{{cite news |title=New Business |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1948/1948-05-31-BC.pdf#page=17 |access-date=October 29, 2021 |work=Broadcasting |date=May 31, 1948 |page=13}}
Format
The opening (read by announcer) called the show "This Is Nora Drake, a modern story seen through the window of a woman's heart".
Nora Drake was a nurse at Page Memorial Hospital in a medium-sized town.{{cite book |last1=Dunning |first1=John |title=Tune in Yesterday : The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1925-1976 |date=1976 |publisher=Prentice-Hall, Inc. |location=Englewood Cliffs, N.J. |isbn=0-13-932616-2 |pages=602–603 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Encyclopedias/Miscellaneous-Encyclopedias/Tune-In-Yesterday_Dunning-1976.pdf#page=618 |access-date=October 30, 2021}} She was one of several women featured on radio soap operas who "were adept at becoming involved with scoundrels, liars, or, as was most likely, married men."{{cite book |last1=Hetherington |first1=John T. |title=Vic and Sade on the Radio: A Cultural History of Paul Rhymer's Daytime Series, 1932-1944 |date=22 April 2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-1605-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLpqAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22This+Is+Nora+Drake%22&pg=PA47 |access-date=October 28, 2021 |language=en}} In Nora's case, she was a nurse in love with Dr. Ken Martinson, who married nurse Peggy King before he realized that his true love was Nora. Peggy refused to divorce Ken and had a "furious confrontation" with Nora, after which Peggy was crippled in an automobile accident, leaving Ken feeling obligated to remain married. Among other efforts against Nora, Peggy (whose father was a trustee of the hospital) sought her father's help in getting Nora fired.{{cite news |title=This Is Nora Drake Will Be New Serial Over KSCJ |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87889197/sioux-city-journal/ |access-date=October 28, 2021 |work=Sioux City Journal |date=April 11, 1948 |page=10 - Section 2|via = Newspapers.com}} After five years of making life difficult for Ken, Peggy was killed, which enabled Nora to pursue her romance.
Nora's life gained another complication when her long-lost father returned. He proved to be unstable and impulsive, and he went to prison for shooting a gambler.{{cite book |last1=Reinehr |first1=Robert C. |last2=Swartz |first2=Jon D. |title=The A to Z of Old Time Radio |date=2010 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8108-7616-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AP_vpj40jC8C&dq=%22with+a+doctor%2C+Ken+Martinson.+Ken+was+as+flawed+as+many+male%22&pg=PA256 |access-date=October 28, 2021 |language=en}}
A review of the November 12, 1947, episode of the program in the trade publication Billboard indicated that it followed a familiar pattern for radio soap operas: "The stuff shapes up as old hat, but commercial".{{cite news |last1=Ackerman |first1=Paul |title=This Is Nora Drake |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ayAEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22This+Is+Nora+Drake%22&pg=PA13 |access-date=October 28, 2021 |work=Billboard |date=November 22, 1947 |pages=13, 17}}
Personnel
Characters in This Is Nora Drake and the actors who portrayed them included those shown in the table below.
Others often heard on the program included Elspeth Eric, Lucille Wall, Les Damon, Robert Readick, and John Sylvester, Bill Cullen and Peter Roberts were announcers.{{cite book |last1=Lackmann |first1=Ron |title=Mercedes McCambridge: A Biography and Career Record |date=9 January 2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8382-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=488dBgAAQBAJ&dq=%22This+Is+Nora+Drake%22&pg=PA42 |access-date=October 28, 2021 |language=en}} Charles Paul was the organist. Directors included Dee Engelback, Art Hanna, and Charles Irving. Writers included Julian Funt and Milton Lewis.
Schedule and sponsors
As of February 9, 1948, This Is Nora Drake was carried on 156 NBC stations.{{cite news |title=Toni Adds 12 Outlets |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1948/1948-02-02-BC.pdf#page=20 |access-date=October 29, 2021 |work=Broadcasting |date=February 2, 1948 |page=20}} On April 12, 1948, the show's broadcasts were added to CBS while they continued on NBC. Episodes using the same scripts were heard on NBC at 11 a.m. Eastern Time and on CBS at 2:30 Eastern Time. That plan resulted from discussions that involved representatives of the networks, the sponsor (Toni hair care products) and the Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency.{{cite news |title=Toni Ends Jam, Spotting 'Nora' On NBC, CBS |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1948/Billboard%201948-04-10.pdf#page=5 |access-date=October 28, 2021 |work=Billboard |date=April 10, 1948 |page=5}} The show replaced Marriage for Two on CBS.{{cite news |title='Nora Drake' Ankles to CBS |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1948/Billboard%201948-03-13.pdf#page=6 |access-date=October 28, 2021 |work=Billboard |date=March 13, 1948 |page=6}}
Beginning in January 1954, Bristol-Myers took on half-sponsorship of the program, with Toni retaining the other half after having been the sole sponsor. That was the first time Bristol-Myers sponsored a program on CBS.{{cite news |title=Bristol-Myers Buys 'Nora' |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/50s/1953/Billboard%201953-12-05a.pdf#page=3 |access-date=October 28, 2021 |work=Billboard |date=December 5, 1953 |page=3}}
Book adaptation
In 1950, Duell, Sloan and Pearce published The Nora Drake Story by Cornelia Blair. The 251-page novel focused on Drake's early life, her nursing education, and her experiences in hospitals through the time when she and her classmates received their caps. A review in The American Journal of Nursing concluded, "Its appeal is primarily to the marriage-minded, for though the author stoutly denies ... that nursing school is a 'glorified matrimonial bureau,' this is the tour de force of the book."{{cite journal |last1=Kelley |first1=Sara W. |title=Book Reviews: The Nora Drake Story |journal=The American Journal of Nursing |date=June 1951 |volume=51 |issue=6 |page=28 |doi=10.1097/00000446-195106000-00077 |jstor=3459199 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3459199 |access-date=October 28, 2021|url-access=subscription }}
Cutout doll books
In 1952, variety stores in the United States sold two paper doll cut-out books based on characters in This Is Nora Drake. Six women from the show, including Drake, were featured, with uniforms and off-duty clothes for nurses.{{cite journal |title=Nora Drake Inspires Doll Book |journal=The 560 News |date=November 1952 |volume=6 |issue=11 |page=8 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Station-Albums/WJLS/WJLS-52-11.pdf |access-date=October 30, 2021}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
=Logs=
- [http://www.otrr.org/FILES/Logs_txt/This%20Is%20Nora%20Drake.txt Partial list of episodes of This Is Nora Drake from Old Time Radio Researchers Group]
=Streaming=
- [https://otrrlibrary.org/OTRRLib/Library%20Files/T%20Series/This%20Is%20Nora%20Drake/ Episodes of This Is Nora Drake from Old Time Radio Researchers Group]
{{Authority control}}
{{US radio soaps}}
Category:1947 radio programme debuts
Category:1959 radio programme endings
Category:1940s American radio programs