Saturday, June 13, 2015

RadioActivity: It Pays To Be Ignorant - When is a Watermelon a Vegetable? (Sep 21, 1945)

It Pays to Be Ignorant was a radio comedy show which maintained its popularity during a nine-year run on three networks for such sponsors as Philip Morris, Chrysler, and DeSoto.
At front, from left: Harry McNaughton, Lulu McConnell and
George Shelton. Master of Ceremonies Tom Howard is standing.
The series was a spoof on the authoritative, academic discourse evident on such authoritative panel series as Quiz Kids and Information Please, while the beginning of the program parodied the popular quiz show, Doctor I.Q. With announcers Ken Roberts and Dick Stark, the program was broadcast on Mutual from June 25, 1942 to February 28, 1944, on CBS from February 25, 1944 to September 27, 1950 and finally on NBC from July 4, 1951 to September 26, 1951.
The satirical series featured "a board of experts who are dumber than you are and can prove it." Tom Howard was the quizmaster who asked questions of dim-bulb panelists Harry McNaughton, Lulu McConnell and George Shelton. The Irish-born Howard (1885-1955) and Shelton (1885-1972) had previously worked together as a team in vaudeville and comedy film shorts, while McConnell (1882-1962) and British comic McNaughton (1896-1967) had both appeared in many Broadway musical comedies and revues between 1920 and the late 1930s... 

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