Fibber McGee and Molly Part II

I have written before of my love for the old time radio show, Fibber McGee and Molly. I love this show so much if I had an iPod, it would have nothing but episodes of Fibber McGee on it!

For some reason autumn makes listening to these shows all that much more enjoyable for me, and I decided I would share my joy with you, my loyal reader. You will find two links below where you will be able to download two different shows for your listening pleasure.

I won't go in to the details of how I came to be such a fan of Fibber McGee and Molly because I already wrote about that once before. However, I would like to say that had it not been for Marion Jordan's poor health, (Marion played Molly to her husband Jim's Fibber McGee,) I honestly believe she and Jim would have remained as famous as Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and George Burns. I say remained because during the twenty-five plus years that Fibber McGee and Molly were on the air they were every bit as, (or perhaps even more,) famous as any of the other great entertainers from the golden age of radio.

In the early 1950's as radio started to give way to television, Fibber McGee and Molly was reduced from a thirty minute show in front of a live audience to a fifteen minute studio show. Later it became a series of five-minute sketches sprinkled throughout the day. Still, many radio shows of the day successfully made the transition to television. Ozzie and Harriet, Burns and Allen, The Jack Benny Show, and I Love Lucy are a few of the more famous shows that had their start in radio, but Marion's poor health prevented her from working much in her later years, and as a result Fibber McGee and Molly was history by the end of the 1950's. It was briefly on television with different actors playing the lead roles, but no one could capture the chemistry of Jim and Marion. It would be like replacing Burns and Allen with other, less known actors trying to pull off the same routines as George and Gracie.

Marion died in 1965, and Jim pretty much retired. He did a few commercials for Johnson Wax; the sponsor for Fibber McGee and Molly for most of its run, and also did a little voice over work such as playing Orville in the 1977 Disney animated film, The Rescuers. But without Marion, Jim favored semi-retirement as opposed to working as an entertainer.

In my opinion Jim Jordan is a great comedic actor. He is a genius on the same level as Hope or Benny, and his impromptu skills cannot be touched. You really need to listen for yourself, but I am sure you will come to the same conclusion.

Like I said, I have made available two shows for you to download and enjoy. I hope you will give them a try because the Fibber McGee and Molly show really is a wonderful slice of American entertainment from the 1930's and 1940's, and I am sure you will think so too.

Right click and save as from this link or this link.

If you do listen to these shows, and would like to hear more, Al Girard has a site devoted to Fibber and Molly, and he has three shows each week available for download. I personally have collected over 700 shows, and many of them came from Al's collection. He has taken the time to clean up the static and other annoying background noises common to old recordings, so most of the shows sound pretty good. You can access Al's site here.

Posted by Jeff at November 1, 2005 8:15 AM