The Aldrich Family
The Aldrich Family was an American radio series that aired July 2, 1939 through April 19, 1953. The main character of the clumsy teenager Henry Aldrich came from the hit Broadway play What a Life . Because of the great popularity of the radio series, an eleven-part film series, a four-year television series and a comic series about Henry Aldrich were also created.
Emergence
The main character, Henry Aldrich, is a lively and somewhat clumsy son of a lawyer who lives in the fictional town of Centerville . The transition from childhood to adult life is difficult for him. Because of this, the 16-year-old teenager regularly gets into minor and major difficulties, including with his girlfriend Kathleen Anderson and his boyfriend Homer Brown. The character was invented by the author Clifford Goldsmith (1899-1971) for his play What a Life , which was staged on Broadway between 1938 and 1939 under the direction of George Abbott . In this play, the character of Henry Aldrich was actually only a supporting role, but his then unknown actor Ezra Stone (1917-1994) received a lot of praise and attention. The well-known entertainer Rudy Vallée also became aware of the figure of Henry Aldrich and used it in numerous skits on his radio show. Ezra Stone also appeared on the Kate Smith radio show as Henry Aldrich.
The radio series
From 1939 the character of Henry Aldrich was so popular that she received her own radio series The Aldrich Family . The sitcom ran most of the time on NBC , but also on CBS for a few years . It became one of the most popular radio shows of the 1940s. Henry Aldrich was also spoken to on the radio by Ezra Stone, who had played him on Broadway. When Stone was on duty during World War II, Norman Tokar , Dick Jones and Raymond Ives also took on the role for a few months each. In 1952, a year before the series was discontinued, the now 35-year-old Ezra Stone had to hand over his role to the younger Robert Ellis (1933-1973).
Film series
As early as 1939, What a Life was the first movie about Henry Aldrich, in which Jackie Cooper played the title role. This first film was directed by Theodore Reed from a script by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett . After Cooper mimed the teenager in the sequel Life with Henry (1941), he gave his role to actor Jimmy Lydon . In the following nine Henry Aldrich films, Lydon played the title role until the series was discontinued in 1944. All eleven films were B-movies and were made by the Paramount Pictures film studio .
Films with Henry Aldrich
- What a Life (1939)
- Life with Henry (1941)
- Henry Aldrich for President (1941)
- Henry Aldrich, editor (1942)
- Henry and Dizzy (1942)
- Henry Aldrich Swings It (1943)
- Henry Aldrich Gets Glamor (1943)
- Henry Aldrich Haunts a House (1943)
- Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout (1944)
- Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid (1944)
- Henry Aldrich's Little Secret (1944)
Television series
For the then still young US television, a series about Henry Aldrich was also created between 1949 and 1953, with the title role being played by five different actors over the course of its broadcasting time. In the 1950/1951 season, Henry Aldrich was ranked 18th in the most successful television series, according to Nielsen Ratings . There was also a series of comics about the Aldrich family.
Web links
- Overview of the radio episodes of the Aldrich family
- The Aldrich Family in the Internet Movie Database (English)