When Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve bade farewell to Fibber McGee and Molly and left Wistful Vista on a train in 1941, no one could have predicted that he would be riding the airwaves with his own new show until 1957. But when one listens to episodes of radio’s first spinoff, it becomes clear the The Great Gildersleeve succeeded because its likable and amusing characters were appealingly fallible, much like the folks each of us knew in our hometowns. This book is a guide to more than 500 episodes of The Great Gildersleeve that are in circulation and also to the scripts of 46 episodes for which no recordings exist. Background on the development of the program is included, and the appendices include a list of episodes as well as information about cast members, notable occurrences on the program, ratings, and the films and TV series.

Clair Schulz served as the archives director at the Museum of Broadcast Communications and is the author of two books and numerous articles about old-time radio and vintage films. He lives in Muskego, Wisconsin.

Clair Schulz
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 236
Bibliographic Info: 24 photos, appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7336-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0162-5
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Preface   1

Introduction   3

Format of Episode Entries   12

Episode Guide   13

Appendix A: Cast Members   193

Appendix B: Gildersleeve in Film and on Television   204

Appendix C: Alphabetical List of Episodes   210

Appendix D: Notable Occurrences   219

Appendix E: Ratings and Rankings Summary   222

Bibliography   224

Index   225

“one of those labors of love by a program fan and authority who has laboriously pulled together just about every available fact on the long-running program and its cast”—Communication Booknotes Quarterly; “Schultz expands previous works on the subject by providing insights on the groundbreaking show’s development.”—Reference & Research Book News.