Fun Plus Hugs

For three years knuckle-headed, know-it-all Fibber McGee has been larding his fun program with monthly propaganda plugs—about waste fats, car pools, etc. The funniest part is that the customers like it. Last week Fibber & Molly (Jim & Marion Jordan) pitched their 30th Government plug, a Wistful Vista bond rally; they also edged ahead of Bob Hope again in their neck-&-neck race for program popularity.

Formula for Fibber. Much credit for the success of their propagandizing belongs to Don Quinn, the man who writes the show (NBC, Tuesdays, 9:30 p.m., E.W.T.). He was the first radio scripter to see profit in building an entire comedy show around one of the subjects which OWI allots to radio each month. (Most programs either confine themselves to a sly line or two, or else beat the listeners' ears back with earnest messages.)

Don Quinn's formula: put into Fibber's loud mouth all the bromidic complaints of disgruntled civilians—and then point out the vulgar errors of Fibber's thinking. When OWI wanted to hit unnecessary travel, Quinn had Fibber attempt a 250-mile train trip, fail to get either a reservation or any sympathy ("If you insist on being bullheaded, why don't you take a cattle car!"), and finally admit that "the railroads have bitten off about as much as they can choo-choo."

Of his propaganda shows, Quinn says, "We have better audience reaction, we get more fan mail, our Crossley [listener rating] goes up." His explanation: listeners are already interested in the subjects. To test the program's pull, Fibber & Co. were given exclusive rights to one OWI plug, an appeal for merchant seamen. The War Shipping Administration said that "responses doubled the next day."

Occasionally the listeners complain. After a program on food rationing, one wired: "You are supposed to sell wax [Johnson's]." Another complained: "It's already been rammed down our throats without you yapping . . . about it."

Quandary for Quinn. Fibber broods about such complaints. Quinn laughs them off. He does not even mind driving 30 miles into Hollywood three days a week to work free for OWI. One night after a Fibber & Molly show about gasoline rationing, Quinn got home to find himself in a quandary: there was a telegram from William Jeffers, then national rubber director, complimenting him on the program; there was also a letter from his ration board, denying him supplemental gasoline.

Quinn wired Jeffers: "I am very happy to have tried to help. . . . But the . . . joke of the evening was written by [my] ration board. . . ."

Jeffers wired back: "Strange world, isn't it?"

Quinn got the gas.