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".

Preparation for the Mandrake the Magician Radio Show

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.

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 (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 Company (Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee). The first broadcast of the radio show was at WOR on November 11 1940, followed by WLAC and KWK on November 18.

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).

According to various sources the last radio episode aired by WOR was on February 6 1942. In some New Jersey newspapers Mandrake is mentioned under the Radio Programs up to February 18, but this may be incorrect due to poor proofreading.

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  Lee Falk and Carlo de Angelo (November 1940)

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  WOR & Taystee Bread
  December 12, 1940

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  WOR & Taystee Bread
  October 8, 1941

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  Newspaper review

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  NBC Network ad

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  Brochure For Radio Programs

About the sponsor

See: Taystee Bread Company and Mandrake Magicians Club.

Replays on Air

In transcripted form Mandrake returned on WOR on March 23 1942, now aired over the New York City radio station WINS. The show is not listed in radio programs after October 12, 1942. 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.

Together with "Superman" "Mandrake" made his debut on Mutual radio network October 12, 1942, (probably) as replays of the original serial.

On October 29, 1945, Mother's Cake & Cookie (agency Emil Reinhardt, Oakland] started a five weekly transcripted quarter-hour "Mandrake the Magician" on KGO, San Francisco.

KTXL aired the show tre-days-a-week from October 27, 1947, sponsored by Andrew J. Paris (The Bubble King of America). WCRS in Greenwood (South Carolina) aired the radio show in 1947.

References

Working notes

The official history that are written in some books, is something like this:

• "From the 11 November 1940 to 02 June 1942 Mutual radio network, New York, aired a 15 minute serial with Mandrake the Magician. It started in New York over station WOR as a three days a week serial and then five days a week beginning in 1941."

Radio programs in New York newspapers in 1941 only advertise the Mandrake serial aired at Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with a few exceptions due to the holidays.

Presenting Mandrake the Magician

The show opened with Mandrake invoking his chant, Invoco Legem Magicarum (I invoke the laws of magic) which moved the story forward. At least 195 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

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 29 episodes of Mandrake.

• Mandrake the Magician

See also

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