Don McNeill and His Breakfast Club - Hardcover

Doolittle, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0268008981 ISBN 13: 9780268008987

Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr, 2001

Synopsis

Before morning talk radio, before Garrison Keillor and Lake Wobegon, before Oprah, Jay, Rosie, and Dave, there was Don McNeill and his Breakfast Club. From his first broadcast in June 1933 until his sign-off in December 1967, Don McNeill presided as emcee over his creation, along the way cultivating as widespread an audience and as long-lived a show as any that flourished in the decades when radio was the dominant source of news and entertainment in American life. McNeill's genius was to insist on an unscripted show produced before a studio audience. In that format, his spontaneous wit and genial manner, coupled with his good-natured banter with the Breakfast Club cast and audience, meshed beautifully into an uplifting show of emotional immediacy. Listeners tuned in at 8 a.m. to hear the first of four calls to breakfast; they knew to expect the March Around the Breakfast Table and such other regular features as the Moment of Silent Prayer and Memory Time. Through a mix of comedy, music, interviews, and upbeat moral encouragement - all centered around the everyday fixture of the breakfast table - McNeill both entertained his listeners and welcomed them as participants in a morning ritual that became part of their daily routine. Their response was overwhelming, rewarding the show with support for over thirty-five years. With Chicago as his base, McNeill aimed first to capture a listening audience of stay-at-home, middle-income women in the Midwest. He soon extended that base to a national audience by hosting such celebrities as Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Jimmy Stewart, Jane Russell, Joe Lewis, Lucille Ball, Danny Kaye, and Groucho Marx. The Breakfast Club then hit the road to great success, even spawning, in 1948, the "Don McNeill for President" campaign complete with whistle-stops across the country. McNeill's sincerity, warmth, and humor entertained his audience and gave it a welcome balance to the deprivations and horrors of the Depression, WWII, and the Korean War. Often corny and always rooted in down-to-earth friendliness, McNeill never shied away from conveying his values: civility to all, respect for family and marriage, compassion for others, and spirituality as a source of inner strength. Complete with a CD of selections from Breakfast Club broadcasts, this set will charm old-time radio devotees, students of media and Chicago history, as well as former Breakfast Clubbers.

About this title

About the Author:

JOHN DOOLITTLE teaches broadcast journalism in the School of Communication at American University where he is Director of the Journalism Division. He has been a producer, reporter, and news anchor, and continues to work in the field.

From Library Journal:

Before Garrison was even a twinkle in Mr. Keillor's eye, Don McNeill launched a radio show with a unique mix of humor, music, and audience participation. From 1933 to 1968, the Chicago-based Breakfast Club aired every weekday on the ABC radio network (originally NBC's Blue Network). Millions of Americans tuned in to hear songs, jokes, interviews, the "March Around the Breakfast Table," the "Moment of Silent Prayer," and other regular features. (Except for his strong support of public prayer, McNeill eschewed politics, though he did run for president in 1948 on the Laugh Party ticket.) In this thoroughly researched and highly readable account, Doolittle (broadcast journalism, American Univ.) reminds us just how popular Breakfast Club really was, especially with homemakers of modest means but also with the likes of J. Edgar Hoover and Justice William O. Douglas. Many show business celebrities were guests on the show, including Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball, and Jerry Lewis. The book is accompanied by a CD that features clips from actual shows. Recommended for all popular culture and communications collections. Susan M. Colowick, North Olympic Lib. Syst., Port Angeles, WA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0268008981
• ISBN 13: 9780268008987
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 247