WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:20.000 Oh, we love the halls of I-D that surround us here today. 00:20.000 --> 00:34.000 And we will not forget, though we be far, far away. 00:34.000 --> 00:47.000 Through the hallowed halls of I-D, every voice will bid farewell. 00:47.000 --> 01:00.000 And shiver up in twilight like the old Vestrel Bell. 01:00.000 --> 01:08.000 Aloha, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to have in our studios a man whose name I'm sure many of you know. 01:08.000 --> 01:17.000 If you have listened very carefully to one of our most delightful programs, indeed one of the most delightful programs on the air anywhere, 01:17.000 --> 01:22.000 and have listened all the way through to the end, you have heard his name many times. 01:22.000 --> 01:29.000 Certainly he is a man whose art you are familiar with and whose art you have enjoyed tremendously, I know. 01:29.000 --> 01:31.000 Whether or not you know his name. 01:31.000 --> 01:37.000 For he is the writer of our delightful program, The Halls of Ivy. 01:37.000 --> 01:41.000 And his name is Quinn, Mr. Don Quinn. 01:41.000 --> 01:45.000 As I said, Mr. Quinn, it is a great pleasure to have you here. Welcome. 01:45.000 --> 01:46.000 Thank you. 01:46.000 --> 01:52.000 I think that our listeners will be interested first, although we want to talk about Halls of Ivy, of course. 01:52.000 --> 01:56.000 I think they'll be interested first in talking about Don Quinn. 01:56.000 --> 01:59.000 Who are you? Where are you from? Where were you born? And so on. 01:59.000 --> 02:01.000 Where were you born, Mr. Quinn? 02:01.000 --> 02:08.000 I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, although my family traveled quite a bit through the Midwest. 02:08.000 --> 02:15.000 My father was a chamber of commerce organizer who would go to a town, organize a chamber, and run it a year, and then move on. 02:15.000 --> 02:18.000 So my schooling was rather sketchy. 02:18.000 --> 02:21.000 Oh, yes. All over the great Midwest of our country, huh? 02:21.000 --> 02:24.000 Yes, through Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois. 02:24.000 --> 02:28.000 Then you were educated here and there and everywhere. 02:28.000 --> 02:34.000 If you can call it educated, yes. I always say I'm a self-made illiterate. 02:34.000 --> 02:36.000 What do you mean by that? 02:36.000 --> 02:44.000 Well, most of my education has been, as I say, was scattered here and there, and most of it has been through reading and observation. 02:44.000 --> 02:48.000 One would think that you must be an extremely highly educated man. 02:48.000 --> 02:57.000 I mean from the standpoint of formal education, however, since you write this program, Halls of Ivy, which is quite an erudite script sometimes. 02:57.000 --> 03:01.000 Well, thank you. I'm glad to have this illusion as being perpetuated. 03:01.000 --> 03:08.000 But it's quite fraudulent in the fact that my formal education has been neglected. 03:08.000 --> 03:21.000 However, my wife is a journalist from Northwestern, and practically a Phi Beta Kappa, although she denies it. 03:21.000 --> 03:24.000 And she is my reference point for most of the college work. 03:24.000 --> 03:27.000 Oh, indeed. I'm very much interested in that. 03:27.000 --> 03:32.000 I was going to ask you if you had any family. Now you have told us of your wife, and she is helpful, eh? 03:32.000 --> 03:35.000 She's very helpful and a great critic. 03:35.000 --> 03:42.000 And what is the famous old phrase out of a play of years ago, best friend and severest critic, eh? 03:42.000 --> 03:43.000 Yes. 03:43.000 --> 03:44.000 Any other family, Mr. Quinn? 03:44.000 --> 03:49.000 Yes, I have two children, a girl, 16, Nancy, and a boy, Johnny, 10. 03:49.000 --> 03:50.000 Oh, are they here with you? 03:50.000 --> 03:51.000 Nancy is with us. 03:51.000 --> 03:56.000 Oh, Nancy is, huh? I hope she and all of you are enjoying your Hawaiian visit. 03:56.000 --> 04:00.000 My daughter's practically in tears at the thought of going home Thursday. 04:00.000 --> 04:05.000 Well, we're sorry to see her and all of you go. We hope that you'll be inspired to come back. 04:05.000 --> 04:09.000 It's been a delightful visit, and we hope to make this an annual tour. 04:09.000 --> 04:11.000 How long have you stayed this time? 04:11.000 --> 04:13.000 Between boats, 10 days. 04:13.000 --> 04:14.000 Oh, have you been here before? 04:14.000 --> 04:18.000 Yes, we were here in the summer of 1941. 04:18.000 --> 04:22.000 Oh, and this is your first opportunity to get back again. 04:22.000 --> 04:27.000 Yes, the first time, but it won't be the last. We're going to try to make this more frequent. 04:27.000 --> 04:31.000 Fine, I'm delighted to hear that. Do you have any hobbies, Mr. Quinn? 04:31.000 --> 04:34.000 I have so many hobbies I don't have time for my work. 04:34.000 --> 04:40.000 Oh, I get in my car and drive in the mountains, which is my principal hobby. 04:40.000 --> 04:47.000 I paint, I pistol shoot, skeet shooting, chess, reading, theater, any number of things. 04:47.000 --> 04:50.000 You have a well-rounded and full life, eh? 04:50.000 --> 04:51.000 I have a lot of fun. 04:51.000 --> 04:54.000 As a matter of fact, they all, I imagine they all help you in your work, too. 04:54.000 --> 04:59.000 They all contribute, if only in the matter of relaxation and rest. 04:59.000 --> 05:04.000 Yes, a capable writer should be a versatile fellow of many interests and so on. 05:04.000 --> 05:11.000 Well, radio writing is a highly competitive business, and it's a great strain during the broadcasting season. 05:11.000 --> 05:15.000 And when vacation time comes along, it's highly welcome. 05:15.000 --> 05:16.000 Yes. 05:16.000 --> 05:22.000 Anything you can do to relax is all to the good, and there is nothing like a trip to Hawaii misdirection. 05:22.000 --> 05:27.000 That's so true. How did you come to get into radio writing, by the way? 05:27.000 --> 05:32.000 You know, in this business, very often the question is, from what profession do you come? 05:32.000 --> 05:35.000 How did you get into radio? How about with you, Mr. Quinn? 05:35.000 --> 05:38.000 I came from the ranks of commercial cartooning. 05:38.000 --> 05:39.000 Indeed. 05:39.000 --> 05:44.000 Which in 1929 and 30 laid, as Variety says, a big egg. 05:44.000 --> 05:49.000 I had been giving jokes to a radio comedian around Chicago named Jim Jordan. 05:49.000 --> 05:50.000 Oh, yes. 05:50.000 --> 05:52.000 Who is now Fibber McGee. 05:52.000 --> 06:00.000 And they asked me if I would write a show for them called Smack Out, which was a rural community country store skit. 06:00.000 --> 06:07.000 And I wrote this for four years, a country store rural thing, without ever having been off the city streets. 06:07.000 --> 06:16.000 So you can see I'm a fraud all the way along here, writing a college show with no education, and the city boy writing a country show. 06:16.000 --> 06:23.000 Fibber McGee and Molly stemmed from that country store skit because we featured tall stories. 06:23.000 --> 06:25.000 This is why we called him Fibber McGee. 06:25.000 --> 06:28.000 Oh, I see. That's where the name Fibber came from. 06:28.000 --> 06:31.000 And that's how you came to start writing that script. 06:31.000 --> 06:32.000 Yes. 06:32.000 --> 06:40.000 I neglected to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that Mr. Quinn did, of course, also originate Fibber McGee and Molly and wrote it for many, many years. 06:40.000 --> 06:42.000 Seventeen, to be exact. 06:42.000 --> 06:43.000 Seventeen, really? 06:43.000 --> 06:44.000 Yes. 06:44.000 --> 06:51.000 You have carried that show too here, Mr. Quinn, and have enjoyed having it very much, Fibber McGee and Molly. 06:51.000 --> 06:53.000 Now let's get to Halls of Ivy, shall we? 06:53.000 --> 06:55.000 We all love that show so much. 06:55.000 --> 06:57.000 It's such a beautiful thing. 06:57.000 --> 06:58.000 And that's no ho'omali molly. 06:58.000 --> 07:00.000 Have you learned what ho'omali molly is? 07:00.000 --> 07:02.000 As far as I know, it means nonsense. 07:02.000 --> 07:04.000 Or fun. 07:04.000 --> 07:06.000 Kid-a-mulong. 07:06.000 --> 07:09.000 I think the best meaning of it is flattery. 07:09.000 --> 07:11.000 Flattery, yes. 07:11.000 --> 07:12.000 Probably the truest meaning. 07:12.000 --> 07:13.000 And so that's no flattery. 07:13.000 --> 07:14.000 That's no ho'omali molly. 07:14.000 --> 07:15.000 We really do. 07:15.000 --> 07:17.000 Hui is not a contraction of this, is it? 07:17.000 --> 07:18.000 No. 07:18.000 --> 07:22.000 Ho'omali molly is pure Hawaiian. 07:22.000 --> 07:25.000 We do love the show, and so let's talk about that, shall we? 07:25.000 --> 07:30.000 Tell me, how was the idea for the program born in the first place? 07:30.000 --> 07:37.000 Well, this was a mental conception which, like all reporters, have a play in the trunk which is never finished. 07:37.000 --> 07:40.000 It's the ideal book or play or production. 07:40.000 --> 07:46.000 This was my idea of a show in which a thought can be expressed once in a while. 07:46.000 --> 07:51.000 A little above the average low comedy. 07:51.000 --> 07:54.000 I have very high respect for low comedy. 07:54.000 --> 07:59.000 It's entertainment for a lot of people. 07:59.000 --> 08:05.000 But during the war, in the government allocation program of war messages on Fibber McGee and Molly, 08:05.000 --> 08:12.000 we found that we could sell an idea embedded in comedy very successfully. 08:12.000 --> 08:19.000 We used to take the war themes and build shows around them rather than tie them on the end of the show and brush them off. 08:19.000 --> 08:26.000 So with this in mind, I thought I would like to do a fairly literate type of show for me. 08:26.000 --> 08:27.000 I didn't think it would ever go on. 08:27.000 --> 08:30.000 It was just a dream show. 08:30.000 --> 08:37.000 But my agent and very good friend, Mr. Nat Wolfe, who was the husband of Edna Best, the English actress, 08:37.000 --> 08:42.000 kept after me to write this show until I finally did it to get rid of him. 08:42.000 --> 08:45.000 And it went on, the first show went on exactly as written. 08:45.000 --> 08:47.000 I don't think a word was changed. 08:47.000 --> 08:52.000 And it was quite a successful thing from the beginning, much to my gratification. 08:52.000 --> 08:57.000 Yes, of course. That must have been a thrill of satisfaction for a writer, eh? 08:57.000 --> 08:58.000 Yes, it was. 08:58.000 --> 08:59.000 Dreaming about it for a while. 08:59.000 --> 09:02.000 Yes, this was a dream come true. It doesn't happen very often. 09:02.000 --> 09:05.000 It was purely then from the standpoint of a writer's ideas. 09:05.000 --> 09:12.000 He would like to get across a thought, as you say, a serious or a worthwhile thought, dressed up in comedy, huh? 09:12.000 --> 09:17.000 Yes, in almost every show, no matter how frothy the show itself is, 09:17.000 --> 09:22.000 we try to have at least one line or paragraph or idea which you can take home with you. 09:22.000 --> 09:25.000 If it's only, don't kick dogs or be good to your mother. 09:25.000 --> 09:26.000 Yes. 09:26.000 --> 09:30.000 Usually it's some little bit of philosophy, maybe borrowed, maybe original. 09:30.000 --> 09:34.000 But in every show we like to have one serious thought. 09:34.000 --> 09:37.000 And I think we've done it fairly successfully. 09:37.000 --> 09:39.000 Oh, you certainly have. I remember many of them. 09:39.000 --> 09:44.000 I remember one. One comes to mind and in fact has seldom left my mind. 09:44.000 --> 09:51.000 That charming script that you had about the award, the literary award. 09:51.000 --> 09:55.000 And Dr. Hall thought at first that of course he had won it. 09:55.000 --> 09:59.000 It was for his book and then it turned out that it was for a student and so on. 09:59.000 --> 10:05.000 And you had that beautiful bit of Chinese philosophy at the end about the teacher and so on. 10:05.000 --> 10:07.000 Well, innumerable, I would say innumerable. 10:07.000 --> 10:11.000 A great many of our shows have been requested, 10:11.000 --> 10:15.000 copies have been requested by various state and government agencies. 10:15.000 --> 10:19.000 And for instance we had one on adoption. 10:19.000 --> 10:25.000 In which we expressed to a child why he was adopted. 10:25.000 --> 10:26.000 I remember. 10:26.000 --> 10:30.000 And this script was requested by a great many state welfare agencies 10:30.000 --> 10:35.000 as the proper explanation to a child of adoption. 10:35.000 --> 10:41.000 General Hershey asked for copies of a script for indoctrination purposes. 10:41.000 --> 10:46.000 We had one on hoodlumism in the colleges of young men who felt that 10:46.000 --> 10:52.000 they were going to go in the army anyway and they might as well have fun while they could. 10:52.000 --> 10:55.000 And they had a rather destructive attitude. 10:55.000 --> 11:00.000 Rather a lack of obligation to their own citizenship. 11:00.000 --> 11:05.000 And this was considered quite valuable by General Hershey and he asked, 11:05.000 --> 11:07.000 and he's using that script now. 11:07.000 --> 11:14.000 Now this has happened so many times with this show that we're all very happy that we're entertaining as well as useful. 11:14.000 --> 11:17.000 Yes, exactly. It must be most gratifying. 11:17.000 --> 11:22.000 I wondered if perhaps something of the idea had been inspired by the people. 11:22.000 --> 11:27.000 You know sometimes an idea I think for a writer is inspired by an actor that he has to work with. 11:27.000 --> 11:29.000 Do you find that true? 11:29.000 --> 11:35.000 We get material from all directions, particularly the people concerned with the show. 11:35.000 --> 11:41.000 We have bought scripts from the violinist in the show, from the musical director, 11:41.000 --> 11:44.000 from two of the engineers, from an announcer. 11:44.000 --> 11:47.000 A lot of people around the show offer ideas. 11:47.000 --> 11:52.000 Now we hesitate to accept an idea from outside from people we do not know. 11:52.000 --> 11:54.000 As a matter of fact we return them unread. 11:54.000 --> 12:00.000 This is a rather, it's too bad because we probably passed up a great many wonderful ideas. 12:00.000 --> 12:07.000 But motion picture studios use this too because the dangers of suit for plagiarism later on are so great 12:07.000 --> 12:12.000 from crackpots and opportunists that they don't dare read unsolicited manuscripts. 12:12.000 --> 12:15.000 We have to depend on known sources. 12:15.000 --> 12:21.000 We have a staff of three or four writers of which I am one. 12:21.000 --> 12:25.000 And I edit all the shows. No show goes on without my having edited every word of it 12:25.000 --> 12:28.000 and practically rewriting the told show mostly. 12:28.000 --> 12:35.000 But it's a very small stable as we say of writers and most of our shows come stem from those. 12:35.000 --> 12:37.000 From your own, yes, I see. 12:37.000 --> 12:40.000 The ideas come from everywhere and by osmosis. 12:40.000 --> 12:46.000 Yes, I suppose you perhaps have an actor play a part and the way he handles a given scene 12:46.000 --> 12:52.000 or a given development probably will give you an idea for something that you can use in a later script, 12:52.000 --> 12:53.000 if that's not so. 12:53.000 --> 12:56.000 This happens all the time in radio. 12:56.000 --> 13:02.000 Something happens and you realize that you've found a quality or a piece of business which is valuable 13:02.000 --> 13:08.000 and then you use it again and this is the way a great many radio actors and types have been developed. 13:08.000 --> 13:12.000 If they're not good, you drop them, you not use them again. 13:12.000 --> 13:19.000 But pieces of business like Fibbers Closet and certain professors on Ivy have stemmed from 13:19.000 --> 13:22.000 what was intended as a one-time performance. 13:22.000 --> 13:26.000 But they've been so good that they've been retained and repeated. 13:26.000 --> 13:30.000 So you never know. This is one of the fun things of radio. 13:30.000 --> 13:33.000 You never know where your next property is coming from. 13:33.000 --> 13:34.000 Yes, how true. 13:34.000 --> 13:39.000 How did the charming Coleman's get into the picture? 13:39.000 --> 13:43.000 By inadvertence, a lucky inadvertence for two of us. 13:43.000 --> 13:50.000 The show was originally written for Mr. Gail Gordon who is a very prominent and to my mind 13:50.000 --> 13:54.000 the most proficient actor in radio, a fine man. 13:54.000 --> 13:58.000 It was written for him and Edna Best, the English actress. 13:58.000 --> 14:02.000 But Miss Best had to go east to do some Maurice Evans plays in New York 14:02.000 --> 14:07.000 and Mr. Gordon was tied up contractually and we couldn't have him 14:07.000 --> 14:13.000 so we had to frantically recast and Mr. and Mrs. Coleman were suggested 14:13.000 --> 14:16.000 and they turned out to be the ideal people. 14:16.000 --> 14:18.000 I don't know why we didn't think of them in the first place, 14:18.000 --> 14:22.000 but they have just been wonderful ever since they are Dr. Hall. 14:22.000 --> 14:32.000 As a matter of fact, he gets mail addressed to Dr. Hall asking him to solve college problems. 14:32.000 --> 14:39.000 That's marvelous, imagine. That certainly must be gratifying to him. 14:39.000 --> 14:45.000 Practically all our mail is gratifying. It's a very pleasant, very literate type of fan mail. 14:45.000 --> 14:46.000 Oh yes. 14:46.000 --> 14:48.000 And I have a great joy in answering it. 14:48.000 --> 14:54.000 I have a lot of fun even answering the crackpot letters of which every show gets a few. 14:54.000 --> 14:58.000 Sure, I suppose. For instance, do you recall anything that might be interesting or amusing? 14:58.000 --> 15:02.000 Yes, I do. We happened to be on for a beer sponsor. 15:02.000 --> 15:03.000 Yes. 15:03.000 --> 15:10.000 And one, some fanatic type in California said that we were undermining the youth of the nation 15:10.000 --> 15:15.000 and selling them into alcoholic slavery, another such nonsense. 15:15.000 --> 15:16.000 Yeah. 15:16.000 --> 15:21.000 And as the privilege of answering a personal letter was mine, I answered this 15:21.000 --> 15:25.000 and told her that Christ's first miracle was turning water into wine 15:25.000 --> 15:28.000 and I hoped one of his later ones would be turning bigots into human beings. 15:28.000 --> 15:33.000 Ah, marvelous. There's a line for a writer if I ever heard one. 15:33.000 --> 15:36.000 It must be a great pleasure for you to work with the Coleman's, isn't it? 15:36.000 --> 15:41.000 It is pure delight because they're very charming, literate, gracious people. 15:41.000 --> 15:46.000 And we couldn't be fonder of them than we are and they're very conscientious. 15:46.000 --> 15:48.000 They do a wonderful job. 15:48.000 --> 15:53.000 And Mr. Coleman is somewhat of an illiterate authority himself, which saves me a great deal of work. 15:53.000 --> 15:56.000 I just refer to him instead of Bartlett's quotation. 15:56.000 --> 16:00.000 Oh, indeed. I was going to ask you if they ever made any suggestions, do they? 16:00.000 --> 16:05.000 They have both written scripts. Ronnie has written two scripts and Benita has written one. 16:05.000 --> 16:09.000 And they're very sharp critics. 16:09.000 --> 16:14.000 They know when a theme or an attitude is fraudulent and correct it. 16:14.000 --> 16:19.000 Not that it often is in this show because we work too closely together. 16:19.000 --> 16:25.000 But they are very sharp in detecting a false note or a lack of quality. 16:25.000 --> 16:28.000 Yes, well that certainly must be most helpful. 16:28.000 --> 16:35.000 Two, in listening to the show, they seem to enjoy themselves very much. 16:35.000 --> 16:40.000 You can tell, you know, an actor feels the reactions and he feels the script. 16:40.000 --> 16:47.000 And I think a knowing listener can feel the actor's feeling, if you get what I mean. 16:47.000 --> 16:52.000 I have always held to the theory that friendliness is a communicable feeling in the air. 16:52.000 --> 16:57.000 And this is probably, and I can say this after 25 or 30 years of radio writing, 16:57.000 --> 17:02.000 this is probably the happiest group of people on one show that I've ever seen. 17:02.000 --> 17:07.000 Everyone likes everyone else, everyone is competent, we have experts in every department. 17:07.000 --> 17:10.000 And it is, from a writer's standpoint and a production standpoint, 17:10.000 --> 17:13.000 it is a pure joy to put this show on the air every week. 17:13.000 --> 17:17.000 I imagine. It certainly sounds as though everybody's having a fine time. 17:17.000 --> 17:21.000 And certainly it sounds as though the visual audience is having a fine time. 17:21.000 --> 17:24.000 They all love it. They all want to come back week after week. 17:24.000 --> 17:28.000 We like new people in there every week to give them all a chance to see it. 17:28.000 --> 17:35.000 Of course, of course. Do the Coleman's ever express themselves as missing the stage? 17:35.000 --> 17:39.000 I mean, does Halls of Ivy quite take the place of the stage for them, or why? 17:39.000 --> 17:43.000 Well, I think all actors have a certain nostalgia for the stage, 17:43.000 --> 17:49.000 but this is such a pleasant and comparatively easy chore for an actor. 17:49.000 --> 17:54.000 And I think it's the compensation is a little higher, except maybe for a motion picture. 17:54.000 --> 17:59.000 Yes. And then you're not under the pressure that you are in either the stage or pictures. 17:59.000 --> 18:03.000 So I think they enjoy this as much as they would a stage production. 18:03.000 --> 18:07.000 You may, if you wish, say I refuse to answer, you understand, 18:07.000 --> 18:11.000 because I'm going to ask you a question now to which you may want to give that answer. 18:11.000 --> 18:14.000 We extend that privilege beforehand. However, I hope you won't. 18:14.000 --> 18:21.000 The question is this. Is the idea of the show, or are any of the characters in it, 18:21.000 --> 18:25.000 biographical or perhaps autobiographical? 18:25.000 --> 18:31.000 No, no, there's no autobiographical basis for any of the characters. 18:31.000 --> 18:36.000 Some of them have been borrowed lightly from people we know. 18:36.000 --> 18:39.000 But we don't lean heavily on acquaintances. 18:39.000 --> 18:45.000 Mostly they're idealizations of people that we have known. 18:45.000 --> 18:48.000 Ah, I see. How did Mr. Wellman develop? 18:48.000 --> 18:54.000 Of course, quite obviously, or it seems quite obvious, he has become a very popular character. 18:54.000 --> 18:56.000 How did he develop? 18:56.000 --> 19:00.000 He developed mostly, I think, because we needed a conflict in the show. 19:00.000 --> 19:07.000 We needed a menace of some sort and a dissonant note, which he fulfills very well. 19:07.000 --> 19:11.000 He's a fine man and a good actor, and he's a lot of fun. 19:11.000 --> 19:17.000 And I will say that college boards throughout the country have taken this kidding in very good part. 19:17.000 --> 19:18.000 Have they? 19:18.000 --> 19:20.000 I know there is no malice in it. 19:20.000 --> 19:25.000 Yeah. He plays the part beautifully, no question about it. His pacing and his moves are splendid. 19:25.000 --> 19:26.000 He's a very competent actor. 19:26.000 --> 19:27.000 Who is he? 19:27.000 --> 19:28.000 He's an old Herbert Butterworth. 19:28.000 --> 19:29.000 Oh, yes. 19:29.000 --> 19:33.000 A stock company of many years and an actor of long standing. 19:33.000 --> 19:40.000 To get back to that other thing I was talking about, the theory of the actor inspiring the writer. 19:40.000 --> 19:50.000 Have any things that he has done, any treatments that he has given the part ever inspired you to, given you an idea for some future? 19:50.000 --> 19:55.000 Well, any writer or any producer who ignores an actor's suggestions is an idiot, 19:55.000 --> 19:58.000 because they have some very valuable contributions to make. 19:58.000 --> 20:01.000 They know what they want to say and how they're going to say it. 20:01.000 --> 20:09.000 And the best radio writing is done for certain talents and for certain people tailored to their delivery. 20:09.000 --> 20:14.000 And everyone on our show is free to submit ideas and they all take advantage of it. 20:14.000 --> 20:18.000 They all submit them and we listen very respectfully to them, including Mr. Wellman. 20:18.000 --> 20:23.000 Good. That's fine. And of course Mr. Merriweather is our friend. 20:23.000 --> 20:24.000 Mr. Merriweather is Gail Gordon. 20:24.000 --> 20:25.000 Yes, I know. 20:25.000 --> 20:28.000 Who was the original Dr. Hall. 20:28.000 --> 20:30.000 Oh, the planned original, yes. 20:30.000 --> 20:38.000 Well, of course when he comes in and takes up the fight in Toddy's behalf, we all love him, of course. 20:38.000 --> 20:39.000 How did he develop? 20:39.000 --> 20:42.000 Well, he developed from the very first show. 20:42.000 --> 20:48.000 He was such a likable character that we decided to use him as an offset for Mr. Wellman. 20:48.000 --> 20:51.000 You've certainly given him some terrific lines. 20:51.000 --> 20:55.000 Some of these comedy things of his are delightful. 20:55.000 --> 20:59.000 And the housekeeper, how about her? Did you just insert her for a reason? 20:59.000 --> 21:05.000 Well, our production man, Mr. Milton Merlin, who is a very book reviewer, a very well read man, 21:05.000 --> 21:11.000 and one of our chief writers practically invented her. 21:11.000 --> 21:18.000 And she's played by Elizabeth Patterson, who was an old time movie actress whom you would recognize instantly if you saw her. 21:18.000 --> 21:24.000 Yes. My wife and I recognized the name right away, of course, and I think the voice too, yes. 21:24.000 --> 21:29.000 Which character would you say gets the strongest audience response? 21:29.000 --> 21:32.000 I suppose that's Dr. Hall himself, but I mean of the other characters. 21:32.000 --> 21:37.000 I think Mr. Wellman probably. Mr. Wellman, yes. 21:37.000 --> 21:45.000 Overwhelmingly, I would say, after Dr. Hall and Mrs. Hall, because he's probably the most projecting of the characters. 21:45.000 --> 21:53.000 Yes, yes. You usually give him a very flamboyant entrance or exit, and he has some snapper to his exit. 21:53.000 --> 22:00.000 That's right. And every once in a while we give him something nice to do to show that he is a human being after all. 22:00.000 --> 22:06.000 Yes, I noticed that toward the end of last season. You had a very nice touch in there. 22:06.000 --> 22:14.000 Don, do you work with the production itself? I mean, do you attend the rehearsals yourself and so on? 22:14.000 --> 22:22.000 I work very closely with the production. I see the script all the way through, editing every word, inserting a great deal of my own work. 22:22.000 --> 22:32.000 Then I attend every rehearsal and every broadcast. This to me is one of the writer's obligations, because if anything should happen, 22:32.000 --> 22:38.000 if an emergency should arise at the last minute, the writer must be there to make corrections and changes. 22:38.000 --> 22:44.000 If an orcure has an accident on the way to the studio, this leaves a very embarrassing gap in the script. 22:44.000 --> 22:48.000 So I think it's part of a writer's duty to follow through the actual broadcast. 22:48.000 --> 22:53.000 Oh, I see, yes. Then you must know very well my old friend Arthur Bryan. 22:53.000 --> 22:58.000 Arthur Bryan is a very dear old friend of mine and a very competent actor. Yes, he is. 22:58.000 --> 23:05.000 I've worked with Arthur for 15 years. Oh, really? I had the pleasure of working with him 20 years ago. 23:05.000 --> 23:13.000 Well, he's never done a bad job that I know of. No. He's always in there pitching. Nice guy, too. Yes, he is. 23:13.000 --> 23:17.000 When do you expect Halls of Ivy to return to the air this season? 23:17.000 --> 23:23.000 I think in October. We're still negotiating contract. 23:23.000 --> 23:28.000 Tell me something about your own personal, shall I say, oh, not problems, 23:28.000 --> 23:32.000 because you have a very happy situation here, and quite obviously from our conversation, 23:32.000 --> 23:39.000 it goes along smoothly and happily, and you're pleased with the whole thing, as who could blame you? 23:39.000 --> 23:43.000 It's the smoothest and most pleasant operation I've ever been connected with in radio. 23:43.000 --> 23:48.000 Yeah, isn't that swell? That's fine. I think it shows it, too. I really do. 23:48.000 --> 23:54.000 But to get back to what I was going to say, the problems of radio writers themselves. 23:54.000 --> 23:58.000 You know, I mean, after all, some are lucky and some are not. 23:58.000 --> 24:05.000 Some are successful and some are not. As we say in show business, some get the breaks and some do not. 24:05.000 --> 24:10.000 What about that? What's your view on that? Are you a member of the Writers Guild, for instance? 24:10.000 --> 24:14.000 I'm practically a Charters member of the Radio Writers Guild, a charter member, 24:14.000 --> 24:16.000 and I have been on the Council for almost ten years. 24:16.000 --> 24:18.000 Oh, really? 24:18.000 --> 24:25.000 And if I may, you said that this is, I didn't have to answer a question? 24:25.000 --> 24:27.000 Well, you don't have to listen to this answer either. 24:27.000 --> 24:28.000 Oh. 24:28.000 --> 24:32.000 But there was a recent blast in the newspaper by, I think, Senator McCarran, 24:32.000 --> 24:36.000 charging that the Radio Writers Guild was red-dominated. 24:36.000 --> 24:38.000 Yes, I was going to ask you about that. 24:38.000 --> 24:41.000 Well, I think it is pure hogwash. 24:41.000 --> 24:48.000 Senator McCarran is a politician, and all politicians will do almost anything for a vote or a headline 24:48.000 --> 24:55.000 or to perpetuate themselves in office, and I think this charge is pure nonsense. 24:55.000 --> 25:00.000 I've known these writers for many, many years, almost a great many of them personally, 25:00.000 --> 25:08.000 and neither in Council meetings nor membership meetings has politics ever arisen. 25:08.000 --> 25:09.000 Oh, really? 25:09.000 --> 25:11.000 This is one of the two taboo subjects. 25:11.000 --> 25:15.000 The other is the quality of radio shows, because other authors, your friends, are present, 25:15.000 --> 25:17.000 and we don't discuss each other's shows. 25:17.000 --> 25:19.000 Oh, yes. And you do not discuss politics. 25:19.000 --> 25:26.000 We do not discuss politics except where legislation is pending concerning the welfare and status of writers in general. 25:26.000 --> 25:27.000 Oh, yes. 25:27.000 --> 25:32.000 This is the only thing the Guild is interested in, is the status of writers and their welfare. 25:32.000 --> 25:38.000 And the fact that there are probably, as in all organizations where you have six or seven hundred members, 25:38.000 --> 25:43.000 there are probably a few communists, but they certainly do not dominate the Guild. 25:43.000 --> 25:49.000 As a matter of fact, I don't think I know any, and I know a lot of these men personally. 25:49.000 --> 26:00.000 And in the first place, the chances of a subversive attitude or line or script reaching the air are highly remote. 26:00.000 --> 26:06.000 In the first place, not many writers are communists because they are independent thinkers, 26:06.000 --> 26:09.000 and the Communist Party does not welcome independent thinkers. 26:09.000 --> 26:15.000 These are individuals, and they are granted that they are all shades of political opinions, 26:15.000 --> 26:21.000 and a great many of them are liberals. This does not make them communists in my mind, because I'm a liberal myself. 26:21.000 --> 26:31.000 But to get a subversive line on the air after going through production men, advertising men, mimeograph girls, engineers, 26:31.000 --> 26:39.000 network authorities, continuity acceptance, this would require a collusion on the part of all people, which would be utterly fantastic. 26:39.000 --> 26:46.000 And I think to get communistic ideas either on the screen or on the radio are very remote. 26:46.000 --> 26:50.000 I've never heard one in all my years of radio writing. 26:50.000 --> 26:57.000 As a matter of fact, the record of the writers during the war effort was very, very good. 26:57.000 --> 27:05.000 I personally have a drawer full of citations, medals, and recommendations from various government agencies, and I'm only one writer. 27:05.000 --> 27:09.000 But they've all done great work during the war and supported the government in all ways, 27:09.000 --> 27:15.000 and it annoys me very much to hear this group branded as red-dominated, because I do not think they are. 27:15.000 --> 27:18.000 In fact, I'm sure they're not. 27:18.000 --> 27:22.000 Well, it's wonderful and certainly most gratifying to hear you say that. 27:22.000 --> 27:25.000 It would seem to me on the face of it to be a little ridiculous anyhow, 27:25.000 --> 27:32.000 because if some subversive line or thought had to be so extremely subtle that it would get by all these people— 27:32.000 --> 27:33.000 It would be ineffective anyway. 27:33.000 --> 27:35.000 That's the point exactly. Exactly. 27:35.000 --> 27:40.000 Well, thank you very much, Don Quinn. It's been a great pleasure to have you in our studio. 27:40.000 --> 27:44.000 Ladies and gentlemen, this Don Quinn, whom you have heard talking, 27:44.000 --> 27:50.000 is the originator, owner, and writer of the famous program The Halls of Ivy. 27:50.000 --> 27:58.000 And it was he who originated and wrote for many years our other popular show that we used to carry, Fibber McGee and Molly. 27:58.000 --> 28:03.000 We all look forward to the return of your delightful Halls of Ivy, Don Quinn, 28:03.000 --> 28:08.000 and we all look forward to the return of you and Mrs. Quinn and your children to Hawaii. 28:08.000 --> 28:11.000 Thank you, Owen. It's been delightful to be here, and I hope you can come back soon. 28:11.000 --> 28:13.000 I hope you can. Aloha. 28:13.000 --> 28:15.000 Aloha nui. 28:15.000 --> 28:19.000 This interview of Mr. Quinn has been transcribed in our studios 28:19.000 --> 28:23.000 and presented as another of our broadcasts in the public interest. 28:23.000 --> 28:26.000 This is Owen Cunningham speaking. 28:26.000 --> 28:30.000 One day a harsh roof falls, 28:30.000 --> 28:39.000 The footsteps of a soul will echo down the hall and tip the tree. 28:39.000 --> 28:47.000 But as we sadly start our journeys far apart, 28:47.000 --> 29:01.000 A part of every heart will linger here in the sacred Halls of Ivy, 29:01.000 --> 29:08.000 Where we've lived and learned to know 29:08.000 --> 29:22.000 That through the years we'll see you in the sweet afterglow. 29:22.000 --> 29:39.000 This is NBC in Hawaii.