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Before television
Lloyd Mathews, Contributing Writer
03-08-2010
What did we do for entertainment before television? A good question, you might say. We did very well. I can assure you that there was plenty to do. First I’ll say that there was radio. Thinking back, I have many fond memories of outstanding radio programs we listened to that took up many hours. I believe families living in the days of radio spent as much or maybe more time together listening to family favorites than families today spend watching television.
Following are some of the more popular radio programs. Going way back into the 1930s, there was Amos and Andy, Lum and Abner, Ma Perkins, Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, Buck Rogers, and several westerns. The Buck Rogers program presented a realistic preview of the space program that became a reality in the more modern age, when men actually walked on the moon. I can still visualize the Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion Tonto, on their horses, waiting beneath a cottonwood tree just outside of a western town, for something to happen that would send them into action. And if these two did not get things cleared up, there was Roy Rogers coming along later in the week to do the job. And in case these heroes failed, there was always old Hop-along Cassidy.
Some of the funnier shows on radio were Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and Fibber McGhee and Molly. These, along with a couple mentioned above, furnished a lot of comedy for Sunday night audiences.
Radio brought us pure country music when Station WSM in Nashville started broadcasting in the 1920s. I’m sure there are still many who remember those early programs, when the “Solemn Old Judge” opened each program of the Grand Ole Opry. At the time, visiting the Grand Ole Opry was just a dream. Many years later after moving to Pulaski, the dream came true, and I witnessed the show in the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.
The first star performer on the Opry was “Uncle Dave Macon,” the Dixie Dewdrop. Uncle Dave made personal appearances all over the country, entertaining the first country music fans. I was a teenager in Waynesboro. Virginia when I, along with a full house of people, saw Uncle Dave walk onto the dark end of the stage and walk right off, luckily escaping serious injury.
I can remember when I, as a youngster, lived on a farm in South Hill, Va., and spent nights at the barn curing tobacco. All night long, I would have the battery operated radio on, listening to radio stations hundreds, even thousands, of miles away. One station was in Del Rio Texas, and from that station, I listened for the first time to the famous Carter Family.
– Lloyd Mathews is a retired land surveyor and a historian who lives in Pulaski.
