Mayor Of The Town

Show Information based on John Dunning's book "On The Air"

Comedy-drama (1942-1949).

Mayor of the Town was a perfect vehicle for Lionel Barrymore: rich with warmhearted humor and good-natured grumbling, its "mayor" had a fierce bark but a mushy heart when confronted with the plight of an orphan or a stray dog. The mayor cared little about political advantage: he even found time, once a year, to turn the town of Springdale into a special theater, to give his traditional performance as Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

The town, as described by Barrymore in Radio Life, was not unlike Dr. Christian's River's End or Gildersleeve's Summerfield. There was a broad Main Street, flanked by secondary streets, First and Spring. The cross-streets bore the names of trees - Cherry, Walnut, Locust, and Elm. At the foot of Main Street were Hill and Market streets. At Market and Main were the Idle Hour Theater, Fred Jackson's service station, and the two town newspapers, the Globe and the Clarion. On Main Street were Grayson's Drug Store, the Bon-Ton Department Store, Veeder's Tobacco Shop, and the Bijou Theater. The big hotel in town was the Grover House, at Main and Third. Next to the hotel was the Greyhound Bus Depot; next to that, a tea room called the Pantry, where the mayor's secretary, Toni McCafferty, took her lunches. The train station was at the foot of Hill Street, and across the tracks was the shabbier part of town, marked by the Avon Hotel, a "parcel of juke joints," and a couple of poolrooms. The town church was at Maple and Spring. Reverend Dinwiddie was a fussy little man "but gives the congregation a good sermon for its money." The sexton, farmer George Meader, "swings a mean call to church."

Other town characters were Police Chief Archie Chamberlain; dog catcher Clem Adams; the town physician, Dr. Case; and Mrs. Bronson, Sunday school teacher. Miss Grew ("Gruesome" to her students) was the teacher at Elmwood School. And Judge Williams was the best checker-player in town - "next to me," said the mayor.

The main characters were the mayor, his housekeeper, Marilly, and his ward, Butch, who was often found hanging on the gate when the mayor came home from City Hall. The mayor's house was at Elm near Main. Butch, whose real name was Roscoe Turner, had come to live with the mayor (after the first season) when his mother died and his dad went to fight with the Seabees. On warm nights he liked to play under streetlamps, chasing fireflies with his friends, Bitsy Morgan, Peewee Taylor, and Sharlee Bronson. Often the stories were coming-of-age pieces, focusing on the mayor's special relationship with Butch, They fished together and swam at the hole near Rock Creek, Marilly entered the stories with complaints about the mayor's tardiness, or repeating the gossip of her friendly enemy, Abby Peters.

CAST:

Lionel Barrymore as the mayor of the town of Springdale.

Agnes Moorehead as Marilly, his housekeeper.

Conrad Binyon as the mayor's ward, Butch.

Gloria McMillan as Sharlee Bronson, Butch's best girl.

Priscilla Lyon as Holly-Ann, the mayor's granddaughter.

Also: Will Wright, Sharon Douglas, Irvin Lee, Marjorie Davies, and other Hollywood actors.

PRODUCER: Murray Bolen; later Knowles Entrikin.

DIRECTOR: Jack Van Nostrand.

WRITERS: Jean Holloway, Leonard St. Clair, Howard Blake, Erna Lazarus, etc.;

Howard Breslin and Charles Tazewell wrote alternate weeks, ca. 1945.

ORCHESTRA: Gordon Jenkins (ca. 1943); Bernard Katz (1945); Frank Worth.

SOUND EFFECTS: David Light, Mary Ann Gideon.

BROADCAST HISTORY:

Sept. 6-Sept. 27, 1942, NBC. 30m, Sundays at 7:30. Rinso.

Oct. 7, 1942-May 31, 1947, CBS. 30m,

Wednesdays at 9:30, 1942; at 9, Jan. 6.-Dec. 29, 1943. Rinso.

Returned March 11, 1944, Saturdays at 7;

Mondays at 9, July and Aug. 1944;

Saturdays at 7, 1944-45; at 8, mid-1945; at 8:30, 1945-47. Noxzema.

Oct. 8, 1947-June 30, 1948, ABC. 30m, Wednesdays at 8. Noxzema.

Jan. 2-July 3, 1949, Mutual. 30m, Sundays at 7:30. Mutual Benefit Insurance.