Mandrake the Magician (Radio Show)

Country:	USA / English

"Mandrake the Magician" was a 15 minute serial radio show from late 1940 to early 1942. The sponsor, Taystee Bread Company, had a special membership in the Mandrake Magicians Club.

History

In 1935 King Features Syndicate appointed Fred Smith to head a special radio division to handle all their radio buisness, and by early 1936 he had plans for their comic strips in the radio field: A Comic Page of the Air. The idea was to make a 15-minutes radio program using three comic strips, each four minutes in length. The idea could be adaptet for transcriptions or live broadcast, and for joint or separate sponsorship.

At this time "Flash Gordon" was on the air under the sponsorship of Grove's Nose Drops and "Popeye the Sailor" was on the air under the sponsorship of Wheatena (placed by McKee & Albright, Philadelphia). "Mandrake the Magician" was assigned to Cleveland B. Chase & Co. and the program was in rehersal. KFS also mentioned a few other comic strips ready for radio: "Barney Google", "Beatrice Fairfax", "Blondie", "Bringing Up Father", "Inspector Wade", "Just Kids", "Little Annie Rooney", "Little Jimmy", "Pussy Cat Princess" and "Tilly the Toiler". The scripts was to be written by the licensee and could not follow the same continuity as that being used in the newspapers.

April 1936 King Features KFS had distributed 14 of its newspaper comics strips features to five New York radio production forms to act as selling agents for radio adaptations. The firms had been given six-month contracts to handle the comic strips that was adaptable:

• William Morris Agency to handle "Inspector Wade", "Flash Gordon" "Ace Drummond" and "Blondie";
• Fanchon and Marco to handle "Tillie the Toiler";
• Joseph M. Barnett to handle "Bringing Up Father", "Home Sweet Home" and "The Little King";
• Cleveland B. Chase to handle "Tim Tyler's Luck", "Little Annie Rooney" and "Mandrake the Magician".

There was negoations for "Polly and Her Pals", "Just Kids", Krazy Kat" and "Popeye".

The Radio Show

Cleveland B. Chase

A script was written by Joe Cross (a member of the Chase firm). By 1936 the cast for the "Mandrake the Magician" show had been selected and the program was in rehearsal. The production firm reported that it had several agencies interested in the script which would be a quarter-hour program to be broadcast three to five times a week in serial form. A complete 15-minute script was transcripted by World Broadcasting Systems.

It is unknown if this episode ever was aired.

Henry Souvaine Inc.

First Time on Air

The "Movie and Radio Guide" list "Mandrake the Magician" aired over WJR (Detroit, Michigan) early 1940 on April 22, 24 and 26. In newspapers from Michigan Mandrake the Magician is listed in the radio program overview Mondays and Wednesdays on April 15, 17, 22 and 24. "The Grand Rapids Press" lists Mandrake in the radio program for April 29, but this is probably a mistake as no other newspapers list Mandrake on this day.

This appears to be a test production, but nothing is known about this or which sponsor was involved.

Second Time on Air

In "Broadcasting" there is a small note about testing a thrice-weekly quarter-hour radio version of "Mandrake the Magician" on three stationes: KWK (St. Louis, Missouri), WOR (New York City, New York (Newark, New Jersey)) and WLAC (Memphis, Tennessees). The arrangements with KFS for the sale to Campbell-Ewald Co. (New York) was done by Henry Souvaine, the New York program producer of the radio show. Campbell-Ewald was the agency of the Purity Bakeries (Chicago, Illinois), who owned the Taystee Bread (Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee).

Purity Bakeries Co. launched a large-scale test campaign on Taystee bread that opened on the premiere date of the radio show with newspaper ads, posters and display advertising. The bread itself had a new wrapper that promoted the show. The first broadcast of the radio show was at WOR on Monday November 11 1940, followed by WLAC and KWK on November 18. A similar testing campaign for Taystee Bread began on the day of the premiere also in Nashville and St. Louis.

In November and December, the sponsor placed a number of advertisements for the show in the newspapers in the cities where the show was now airing.

• 
  ad WOR
• 
  ad KWK
• 
  ad WLAC
• 
  ad KMBC
• 
  ad KGBX
• 
  ad KRLD
• 
  ad KDRO

KMBC wrapper

Two more stationes were added on May 19, 1941: KMBC (Kansas City, Kansas) and KGBX (Springfield, , Missouri). Purity Bakeries said that the program was to be extensively merchandised in the new marked with newspaper ads, truck posters, handbolls, lapel badges, windows streamers and a special "Mandrake the Magician" bread wrapper. Then followed KRLD (Dallas, Texas) on June 9, KDRO (Sedalia, Missouri). And from August 18: KFDM (Beaumont, Texas), KLUF (Galvestone, Texas), KPAC (Port Arthur, Texas) and KPRC (Houston, Texas).

The last radio episode aired by WOR was on February 6, 1942.

• 
  WOR & Taystee Bread
  December 12, 1940
• 
  WOR & Taystee Bread
  October 8, 1941
• 
  Newspaper review
• 
  KFDM

The production

The show opened with Mandrake invoking his chant, Invoco Legem Magicarum (I invoke the laws of magic) which moved the story forward. All episodes were recorded, but only few of them are known today. In the episodes Mandrake fight against evil doers such as; Capt. X, Barracuda, Hithpitch, The Red Baron, Mr. Z and The Green Mask. The plots seems taken from the war theme with bombs, spy rings, submarine attacks near New York City and so on. Some episodes promoted the observance of health rules among children.

Cast & Crew

Writing credits

• Charles Spain Chuck Verral

Director

• Carlo De Angelo

Producer

• Henry Souvaine

Cast

• Raymond Edward Johnson as Mandrake
• Juano Hernandez as Lothar
• Jessica Tandy and Francesca Lenni as Princess Narda
• Others by the Resident equity company

WOR aired the show from November 1 1940 to February 6 1942. That is 65 weeks, and three episodes a week gives 195 episodes. Henry Souvaine announced the show later with 156 episodes, a difference of 13 weeks (39 episodes). One explanation is that not all episodes are included in later radio broadcasts.

Lee Falk was not directly involved in the production of the radio show. But there is a picture of him with the director of the show, Carlo De Angelo, from November 1940.

• 
  Lee Falk and Carlo De Angelo
• 
  Label of a transcription disc

Replays on Air

Early 1942 Henry Souvaine Inc. start offering 156 episodes of the Mandrake radio show for regional and local sponsorship inn all parts of US and Canada. The ads highlighted that the show gained first price in rating in New York market within the first ten weeks on air, and that over the station WOR the Mandrake club gained 300.000 members in three weeks.

Mandrake returned on March 23 1942, now aired over the New York City radio station WINS three days a week. To promote the show WINS the week before sent out a mystery bag of tricks, games, and novelties, similar to that received by the some 300,000 boys and girls in the metropolitan area, who was members of the Mandrake Club. The Mandrake show is not mentioned in the Radio programs after June 26 1942, so it was probably taken off the air after this day. It is unknown what sponsor the show had at this time.

Two other stations are known to have broadcast the show around the same time period: WAAB (Boston, Massachusetts) and WEAN (Providence, Rhode Island).

On October 12 1942 the New York based WOR was to broadcast the show five days a week at their own station as well over the Mutual radio network starting on October 16. But the station's managment declined to launch the program due to the right situation surrounding the show.

A few broadcasts are mentioned in late October from WATR (Waterbury, Connecticut) and WGR (Buffalo, New York), but it is uncertain whether the broadcasts were carried out.

In ads after this the radio show is listed as a "World Feature" and all having World Broadcasing System Inc. mentioned as the company responsible.

• 
  Henry Souvaine Inc.
• 
  World Feature

Early 1943 the show was broadcasted over WISN (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) three days a week in the period January 25 to April 23. The sponsor is not known.

WHIZ (Zanesville, Ohio) broadcasted the show from May 1945 to April 1946 and KGER (Long Beach, California) from early June 1945 to early December 1946, three days a week. The sponsors is not known.

On October 29 1945 KGO (San Francisco, California) start airing the Mandrake radio show five days a week, with Mother's Cake & Cookie Co. (agency Emil Reinhardt, Oakland) as the sponsor for the show.

KTXL (San Angelo, Texas) was on air first time on October 6 1947. They broadcasted the show tre-days-a-week from October 27, 1947, sponsored by Andrew J. Paris (known as the Bubble King of America). WCRS (Greenwood, South Carolina) aired the radio show in 1947.

• 
  KGER
• 
  KGO
• 
  WCRS

Reprints

Vinyl

Mandrake the Magician Original Radio Broadcasts was released by George Garabedian Productions in 1973.

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• 

Internet

Radio Echoes has a wide selection of Old Time Radio shows that one can listen to, among them 30 episodes of Mandrake.

• Mandrake the Magician

See also

• otrcat.org: Comic Books and Funny Pages in Old Time Radio