OTR Baseball Episode 6: The Baseball Uniform Shortage from Our Miss Brooks

I am going to keep going with my Old Time Radio and baseball series by looking at one of the many historical works that were created.  With baseball really being the National Pastime in the 40s and 50s, it was a natural topic for the numerous historical series that were heard over the airwaves.  I am heading back to the comedies with one of my favorites, Our Miss Brooks starting Eve Arden.

Windy City ThunderBolts  vs. Florence Freedom - Frontier League Baseball
(Florence, Kentucky - August 9, 2012)

From 1948 through 1957, Eve Arden played the lovelorn English teacher at Madison High, Connie Brooks.  This series is one of the very best comedies that we have from Old Time Radio days.  Arden leads an all-star cast in this well written series on CBS Radio that actually holds up well, even today. Between never having enough money, job responsibilities that seem to change from week to week, a cat that is a character all to herself and a love interest who is more fixated on frogs than women...Eve Arden's Connie Brooks always maintains her grace and charm.  The show also featured Jeff Chandler as Mr. Philip Boynton (Connie's long suffering love interest), Jane Morgan as Mrs. Margaret Davis (Connie's landlord), Gale Gordon as Mr. Osgood Conklin (Madison High School's principal, and Richard Crenna as Walter Denton (a student at Madison High).  This is the third straight featured episode featuring Gale Gordon.

The show also was on television starting on October 3rd, 1952.  Through TV and Radio, she became one of the most famous teachers of her day!  From her obituary in the Los Angeles Times in 1990, they wrote:

But it was as Connie Brooks, the wisecracking English teacher in mid-America's mythical Madison High where she constantly engaged in hilarious battles with her stuffy principal, that she became a Friday night favorite.

She was offered the role of the classroom humanist with the smart mouth and warm heart after being heard as radio's Miss Brooks for four years. 

There she had developed a following of hundreds of teachers across American and had even been offered teaching jobs in real schools.  Miss Arden (making $200,000 a year at the time) did not accept, but she did begin speaking at PTA meetings.

So now that you know about this great series, lets jump into the episode.  "The Baseball Uniform Shortage," aired on March 26, 1950 over the CBS Network.

The show opens as most do, with Connie Brooks talking with her landlady Mrs. Davis.  They are talking about Madison High School's upcoming opening day and how excited Miss Brooks was to go.  The reason why, well that has less to do with baseball and more to do with who she was going to go with, Mr. Philip Boynton.  But as what happens to all the best laid plans on this show , things go awry.

With Opening Day just one day away, Connie realizes that she needs a new dress to wear to the game.- but she has no money to shop.  Mrs. Davis let's her know that there is a blue and gold dress at the pawn shop - and since those re the school colors, what could be more perfect.  But she is not the only one with clothing problems.  Turns out that the school's baseball uniforms were not ordered because of money problems at he school.  There is a solution, but it will involve a number of visits back to the pawn shop to get this team on the field.

During the mad dash to fund the baseball team, they consider selling the statue of the Madison High School's athletic department founder, one Yodar Kritch.  But as they say his name over and over, it does come across like Yoda...

I will definitely feature more comedies this summer.  Hope you enjoy this one.

The Baseball Uniform Shortage (March 26, 1950)

Here are some links to programs relating to the Our Miss Brooks:

• Our Miss Brooks radio program episodes via the Internet Archive
• Our Miss Brooks radio program article from the Digital Deli
• Our Miss Brooks on Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs
• Our Miss Brooks Scripts from the Generic Radio Workshop

Old Time Radio Baseball Series and Other Links

• Episode 1: Baseball Murder on 'The Saint' with Vincent Price
• Episode 2: The Day That Baseball Died from the Columbia Workshop
• Episode 3: Baseball and Gambling from Boston Blackie
• Episode 4: The Baseball Instructor with Fibber McGee and Molly (1935)
• Episode 5: The Red Stockings from Cavalcade of America
• Episode 6: The Baseball Uniform Shortage from Our Miss Brooks
• Greg Bell's Old time radio channel on Sirius/XM Radio (#148)

Other Old Time Radio Series by Corey

• OTR Christmas
• OTR Lighthouses
• OTR Diet
• All Old Time Radio Entries