The Great Gildersleeve: Classic Radio's Most Popular Father

For all of the men who have brought up children or who have acted as a Father figure to someone in their lives be it step-father, favorite uncle, big brother or grandfather, I offer you my warmest regards. Hopefully, I have covered every good man out there!

Quite surprisingly it wasn’t a man who invented Father’s Day, but a woman. In 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd, who had been raised by her father after the death of her mother during the birth of their sixth child, drew up a petition that recommended the introduction of a national Father’s Day celebration.

She hoped to have the first of these special days on the first Sunday in June of 1910 because that was her Father’s birthday, but red tape (yes, they even had red tape back then) held things up so it ended up being on the 19th June instead.

The first Father’s Day was only celebrated in Spokane, but the idea slowly spread. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge gave his official support to the idea (good for him) and then in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation on the matter (good for him too) and this was ratified in 1972 by Richard Nixon who finally granted Sonora Smart Dodd’s wish and established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.

Joy has lined up a whole heap of wonderful Father's Day old-time radio delights for your entertainment.

Last week we ran a poll to see who was your favourite OTR dad.
The results are in, and although it was a very close-fought battle with Jack Benny to claim the crown...

The eventual winner was ... (drumroll please)
"Throckmorton Gildersleeve", with 23.33% of the vote

Here are the final results:

1st Place: Throckmorton Gildersleeve
2nd Place: Jack Benny
3rd Place: Ozzie Nelson
4th Place: Judge James Hardy

Joint 5th Place: Jim Anderson, Chester A Riley, Sam Aldrich, Mr Piper, George Burns

Some of you may not have listened to any of the Great Gildersleeve series yet (you really should!), so I'll tell you a little bit about the main character and winner of the coveted RUSC 'Favourite OTR Dad' title, Throckmorton P Gildersleeve.

He first appeared in the Fibber McGee and Molly series in 1937, however, in 1941, he became the first radio character to spin off into his own radio program, leaving Wistful Vista to become the Water Commissioner of Summerfield and to raise his orphaned niece and nephew, Marjorie and Leroy.

Family life was initially quite difficult for him to adapt to, but he soon began to settle into his guardian's role, taking pride in developing his young charges into responsible American citizens, often struggling with teenage angst and the kind of situations we would still find awkward today! The entire comedy series is light, fun, and heartwarming, and I'd recommend that you listen to a few of the shows if you haven't already.

If you are still young enough to have your father and are wondering what to do for him to make him feel special on Father's Day, then why not sit back and enjoy some shows from the golden age of radio together.

You could even purchase a gift subscription to RUSC, to give three months or even a whole year's worth of good clean entertainment to your lovely Dad, or perhaps download some shows from RUSC onto a CD and pop it in with his card.

Whatever you choose to do this weekend, Joy and I hope you have a great time!

America's Beloved Radio Dad