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S. C. Johnson of Racine bought a half-hour in 1935 and kept it for fifteen years. Harlow Wilcox walked into 79 Wistful Vista every week and sold floor polish to Fibber McGee in the middle of the plot — the only commercial in American radio that audiences waited for.

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  (xx) Smackout

  1 June 1931 · 19 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  0020-TheMcgeesWin79WistfulVista

  26 August 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  A Courtroom Full of McGees

  21 October 1935 · 30 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  A Dip In The Ocean

  15 July 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  Anything to Get out of Scrubbing the Back Porch

  23 September 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  Buying Vegetables At A Roadside Stand

  25 November 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  Christmas Shopping

  9 December 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  Crackshot McGee

  29 July 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  FMM 1935-07-25 (15) The Baseball Instructor

  25 July 1935 · 28 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  Hanging the Curtains from a Stepladder

  16 September 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  Hot Dogs And A Blowout

  30 April 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  How to Ride a Bicycle

  7 October 1935 · 30 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  Lighting The Furnace With Gasoline

  18 November 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  Man On The Street Radio Interviews

  2 December 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  McGee is Psychic

  12 August 1935 · 30 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  Meeting Senator In Washington

  8 July 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  My Heart Beats for You

  19 June 1935 · 29 min

• Fibber Mcgee and Molly

  New Year's Celebration

  30 December 1935 · 29 min

Showing the first 18 of 1,570. Browse the archive for the rest of the run.

Lever Brothers put nine out of ten screen stars in front of a microphone to say they used Lux — and paid for the biggest film-adaptation series radio ever mounted. Cecil B. DeMille introduced it from Hollywood for nine seasons.

• Lux Radio Theater

  Dulcy

  28 October 1935 · 59 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Dulcy

  28 October 1935 · 57 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  The Show-Off

  9 December 1935 · 50 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Alias Jimmy Valentine

  9 November 1936 · 59 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Alias Jimmy Valentine

  9 November 1936 · 57 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Alias The Deacon

  2 March 1936 · 57 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Burlesque

  15 June 1936 · 59 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Burlesque

  15 June 1936 · 58 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Cavalcade

  28 December 1936 · 59 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Cavalcade

  28 December 1936 · 59 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Chained

  27 July 1936 · 59 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Chained

  27 July 1936 · 1h 1m

• Lux Radio Theater

  Cheating Cheaters

  31 August 1936 · 1h 1m

• Lux Radio Theater

  Cheating Cheaters

  31 August 1936 · 1h 0m

• Lux Radio Theater

  Conversation Piece

  16 November 1936 · 59 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Conversation Piece

  16 November 1936 · 58 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Elmer the Great

  5 October 1936 · 59 min

• Lux Radio Theater

  Elmer The Great

  5 October 1936 · 58 min

Showing the first 18 of 1,213. Browse the archive for the rest of the run.

Kraft Phenix Cheese hired Bing Crosby, then Al Jolson, and let them talk between records. The cheese copy was read straight into the room, and the hour set the shape of the American variety show.

• Kraft Music Hall

  1933(USA)Archives19331130PaulWhitemanOrch(KraftMusicHall)

  30 November 1933 · 43 min

• Kraft Music Hall

  1933(USA)Archives19331207PaulWhitemanOrch(KraftMusicHall)

  7 December 1933 · 1h 0m

• Kraft Music Hall

  First Song - Bambalina

  14 December 1933 · 1h 0m

• Kraft Music Hall

  First Song - Great Day, Guest - Pickens Sisters

  28 December 1933 · 1h 0m

• Kraft Music Hall

  First Song - Love Is Sweeping The Country, Guest - Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer

  7 December 1933 · 1h 0m

• Kraft Music Hall

  First Song - Peter, Peter

  30 November 1933 · 43 min

• Big Band Remotes

  KraftMusicHall wPaulWhiteman

  30 November 1933 · 43 min

• Big Band Remotes

  KraftMusicHall wPaulWhiteman Bambalina

  14 December 1933 · 1h 0m

• Big Band Remotes

  KraftMusicHall wPaulWhiteman Great Day

  28 December 1933 · 1h 0m

• Big Band Remotes

  KraftMusicHall wPaulWhiteman LovesSweepingCountry

  7 December 1933 · 1h 0m

• Kraft Music Hall

  Paul Whiteman Kraft Music Hall 331214 First Song Bambalina, Old Time Radio

  14 December 1933 · 1h 0m

• Kraft Music Hall

  1934(USA)Archives19340111PaulWhitemanOrch(KraftMusicHall)

  11 January 1934 · 1h 1m

• Kraft Music Hall

  1934(USA)Archives19340201PaulWhitemanOrch(KraftMusicHall)

  1 February 1934 · 1h 0m

• Kraft Music Hall

  1934(USA)Archives19340419PaulWhitemanOrch(KraftMusicHall)

  19 April 1934 · 1h 0m

• Kraft Music Hall

  First Song - Alexanders Ragtime Band, Guest - Jack Teagarden

  13 December 1934 · 57 min

• Kraft Music Hall

  First Song - Clap Your Hands, Guest - Johnny Mercer, Lee Wiley (30 min due to FDR broadcast at 10:30)

  28 June 1934 · 27 min

• Kraft Music Hall

  First Song - Espana Rhapsody, Guest - Yvonne Gall

  6 December 1934 · 1h 57m

• Kraft Music Hall

  First Song - Hit Hunting, Guest - Johnny Mercer, Jack Teagarden, Derek Oldham

  20 December 1934 · 59 min

Showing the first 18 of 399. Browse the archive for the rest of the run.

American Tobacco's George Washington Hill counted the nation's song sales every week and had them played in rank order, with an auctioneer's chant for tobacco between numbers. Advertising invented the pop chart.

The oil company put Fred Allen, then Ed Wynn as the Texaco Fire Chief, then Milton Berle in front of the country — and had the announcer name the service station on every corner before the first laugh.

The company that built the receiver bought the programme. Philco's Radio Time with Crosby was the first network show recorded on tape rather than played live — the sponsor paid to change how broadcasting worked.

Liggett & Myers bought bandstands: Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade, the Chesterfield Supper Club with Perry Como, the Bing Crosby half hour. Fifteen minutes of music, two minutes of tobacco.

Dearborn sponsored symphony, then anthology drama, then a Sunday evening hour that treated the automobile as a civic institution. Ford's copy sold an idea of America as much as a car.

Lever's toothpaste paid for Amos 'n' Andy, then Bob Hope. The brand name sat in the title of the highest-rated comedy in the country for a decade.

R. J. Reynolds carried Benny Goodman, Bob Crosby and Vaughn Monroe, and shipped the show to army camps as the Camel Caravan for the duration.

Lorillard's cigarette carried Woody Herman's band and, in 1944, a Hollywood comedy theatre with a different film star each week. The claim in the slogan was untrue, which did nothing to slow the sales.

Chewing gum bought Gene Autry's Melody Ranch and the Wrigley variety half-hours — a five-cent product that could afford network time every week of the year.

General Foods' coffee bought the Maxwell House Show Boat, then Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks — a sponsor whose slogan outlived every programme it paid for.

Coca-Cola bought Sunday afternoons, Morton Downey, Percy Faith and Spike Jones, and named a whole programme after its own advertising line.

A tyre company bought a concert hour, kept it on the air for thirty-eight years, and refused to make it any more popular than it was.

Campbell Soup took over Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre after the Martians landed and put its name on the title card. Welles read the soup copy himself, under protest.

General Foods gave Jack Benny six delicious flavours to announce, and the audience learned to chant them back. When the sponsor changed to Grape-Nuts the joke had to be rewritten.

Standard Brands' coffee paid Edgar Bergen and a wooden dummy to insult the guests, and put Mae West on the air in 1937 to a national scandal.

Lever Brothers' soap invented body odour as a public problem, announced it with a foghorn, and paid for Al Jolson and the Big Show to spread the news.

AT&T sponsored no jokes at all: a full orchestra, a guest soloist, and a reminder that the long-distance line was a wonder of the age.