The Life of Riley (1944-45, 1945-51) aired “The Football Game” on Saturday, December 27, 1945 as the 84th of its 324 programs. The 1944-45 run (January 16, 1944 through July 8, 1945) was broadcast by the Blue Network (later to become ABC), while the show was picked up for the remainder of the 1945 season (September 8, 1945 forward) until its final show on June 29, 1951 by NBC.
The show was originally pitched to the sponsor under a different title and with none other than Groucho Marx in the lead role. However, the sponsor rejected the original concept fearing the show would be just another “head-of-the-household” sitcom that wouldn’t be a good fit for Marx. Irving Brecher, the screenwriter who wrote for the Marx Brothers, undeterred, then pitched the idea with William Bendix (1906-1964) in the lead after seeing Bendix in 1942’s Hal Roach film The McGuerins from Brooklyn. With some revisions of the script originally written for Groucho and a new title, The Life of Riley was born.
The show takes place in southern California during World War II where Chester A. Riley is a working class wing riveter in the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant. He lives in a modest suburban bungalow with his wife Peg, his son Junior, and his daughter Babs. Riley is a basically decent man, a good man with a kind heart. Aside from his family, other popular characters appearing from time to time are one of Riley’s co-workers at the aircraft plant, Jim Gillis (who inadvertantly ends up being the cause of a number of Riley’s misadventures), and Digby “Digger” O’Dell, the congenial undertaker who helps bail Riley out of holes he has dug for himself.
William Bendix also starred in the successful 1949 film with the same title as his popular radio show. The Life of Riley also ran on television for a single, 26-episode season from October 1949—March 1950. It ended after the 26 original episodes because Irving Brecher and the sponsor, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer couldn’t come to terms over extending the show for a full 39-week season. While at odds with Pabst Blue Ribbon as the television sponsor, the radio show was happily sponsored by The American Meat Institute (1944-45, the oldest and largest trade association representing the U.S. meat and poultry industry), Proctor & Gamble (1945-49), and the aforementioned Pabst Blue Ribbon beer (1949-51). Over the years the show would move to different times and days of the week, but remained popular with its loyal audience who followed it faithfully. This episode, for example, aired on a Saturday night and ran from 8-8:30 PM.
“The Football Game” has one thing in common with today’s weekends full of football games: how women not into the sport survive the weekends when their men (young or adult) either play or listen to/watch games through the entire weekend, giving rise to the term that the football season makes wives “weekend widows.” But many women in their youth have always held an interest in the game, though not for the reasons one might think—but for dating purposes and manipulating their male prey into participating in and performing certain trials to win their affections. A case in point is when Junior asks his father to help with a girl problem. To wit, if Junior’s high school football team can win their upcoming game (with Junior’s help) then the girl he wants to date will go out with him. But if Junior’s team loses, she will date a boy from the other team. Riley’s advice to his son takes the form of a flashback story Riley shares about his own days playing high school football when a similar situation presented itself (with Riley’s future wife, Peg, in the balance). The wrinkle is that Riley gets an anonymous phone call from someone letting Riley know that if he doesn’t throw the next football game making sure his team loses, serious harm of the worst kind will come to him. Scared the mafia is behind this dire threat but not wanting to lose his chance to perform well in the game and win Peg’s heart, poor young Riley finds himself in a real pickle. How this semi-serious episode turns out is worth a listen, due to the hilarious and ingenious solution the author has concocted to save the day. “The Football Game” is a classic Life of Riley episode with Riley at his best (i.e., often funniest).
Play Time: 29:18
{“The Football Game” aired on many stations at 8 PM on Saturday, October 27, 1945, smack dab in the middle of the college and pro football seasons. While the neighborhood gang loved their other various genre pulps, when football season rolled around it was almost all they could think about. After church the next day, they headed for the local newsstand to hunt for the seasonal issues of the few football pulps they eagerly sought each year, for these pulps published but one issue a year to cash in on the relatively short sports season. I could find very little information worth passing along on the following pulps, except that they published, as noted above, but one issue a year, with 1945 being no exception. One bit of trivia struck me when I saw the cover of Popular Football shown below. Looking at the lower right corner, if you look closely you can see the name of Sam Merwin, Jr. (1910-1996). Merwin began his career as a mystery novelist, but soon made his fame as the editor of numerous science fiction pulps, including Startling Stories (1945–1951), Fantastic Story Quarterly (1950–1951), Wonder Stories Annual (1950–1951), Thrilling Wonder Stories (1945–1951), and Fantastic Universe (1953).}
[Left: Thrilling Football, Fall/45 – Center: Popular Football, Winter/45 – Right: Exciting Football, Winter/45]
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