Little Orphan Annie - Tony is Arrested for Robbery - 1936

Published: Feb. 18, 2022, 9:34 p.m.

This American radio drama series was based on the popular comic strip "Little Orphan Annie". It began on Chicago's WGN in 1930... moved to NBC radio's Blue Network on April 6, 1931 and aired until April 26, 1942. There was another radio series for children called "Skippy" (1932-32) but Little Orphan Annie is viewed as the oldest US children's radio program. There were originally two casts... one west coast starred Floy Margaret Hughes as Annie and the other in Chicago starring Shirley Bell as Annie. When coast-to-coast networking was established in 1933, the Chicago cast became the permanent one. Ovaltine was the initial sponsor... in 1940 Quaker Puffed Wheat Sparkies became the show's sponsor. SHow was known for its premiums related to the sponsor... secret decoders, shake-up mugs, decoder rings, pins, badges... membership in the Secret Society. Commercials were sometimes 3 mins long as they were hawking the premiums and how to get them. Sandy, the dog, was played by Brad Barker... the benefit of radio... if you could sound like a dog, to the listeners, you were a dog! The theme song was sung by announcer Pierre Andre, as "Uncle Andy." The organist was Leonard Salvo. The opening song was memorized and sung by millions of children... it was as popular as the show itself. In 1990 the show was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Very few recordings of the show survive... The Internet Archive has 38 15-minute recordings out of thousands of episodes. This track is living in "Little Orphan Annie" Playlist, which is not very long, but we keep trying to find more... Thanks for listening.