Radio Nature League on the Sun Glow Program (1935-1936)

Note: Starting February 6, 1935 the Radio Nature League met on Wednesday and Saturday nights. This arrangement would change several times (despite TWB's hope that sponsorship would ensure greater scheduling stability). The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University does not have a complete set of scripts from this era, so it is difficult to say exactly how many times the schedule changed. From what is available it is apparent that by May 1935, the show was meeting on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, and then on Thursdays starting September 19. The show ceased broadcasting on Saturdays starting in June, 1935. Copies of Radio Nature League News from this period list the following times (be aware, though, that these were prepared weeks ahead of time and did not necessarily reflect the actual airing dates):

• July and August 1935: Tuesdays at 7:30 on WBZ and WBZA
• September 1935: Tuesdays at 7:30 on WBZ and WBZA; Wednesdays at 6:30 on Yankee Network Stations WNAC (Boston), WEAN (Providence), WDRC (Hartford), WICC (Bridgeport and New Haven), WORC (Worcester).
• October 1935: Tuesdays at 6:30 on the Yankee Network; Thursdays at 6:15 on WBZ and WBZA.

Judging from available scripts, it appears that starting in September, the same show was broadcast on two different nights. It is unclear whether the rebroadcast show was a recording or reproduced live in full. The last script in the HGARC collection is dated January 7, 1936. It is unclear whether the episode, which represented yet another time shift (back to Tuesdays on WBZ), actually aired.

On February 6, 1935 Thornton Burgess reconvened the Radio Nature League, sending out a renewed call for members. (This time members would receive certificates). The League would meet twice a week on WBZ and other affiliated New England radio stations, a situation made possible by the program's new sponsor, Brewer & Company. Based in Worcester, MA, Brewer marketed a wide variety of pharmaceuticals, but would use the Radio Nature League to promote its popular brand of cod liver oil--"Sun Glow."

Unlike the previous incarnation of the Radio Nature League, the Brewer-sponsored program had a set format and featured dramatizations of stories or exchanges between characters. Here is a typical show:

• The show would begin with the song of the American Robin as performed by Edward Avis.
• WBZ announcer, Mr. White, would handle the introduction (these are not in the scripts but it appears these introductions included a pitch for Sun Glow).
• A dramatization would follow.
• As time allowed, League member experiences and questions.
• The show would finish with a segment titled "Truth Stranger than Fiction" in which Burgess would pose a question about a curious animal behavior, to be answered the following program.
• Mr. White would do the credits (not in the scripts).
  
• Burgess would end the show with "And happiness from health to you all." (Occasionally, this message was explicitly linked to the use of Sun Glow).
• Outro: the song of a hermit thrush as performed by Edward Avis.
  

While some programs in the previous incarnation of the Radio Nature League had featured dramatizations (bird walks, humorous exchanges between Mr. and Mrs. B) the Brewer-sponsored version drew more fully from the dramatic conventions of contemporary radio. In addition to acting out stories (e.g., the very first show acted out Burgess's experiences on the fishing schooner), the program introduced several recurring characters to act as comic foils to Mr. Burgess (even Mr. White would be occasionally drawn into the act). As was typical of radio at the time, these characters sometimes embodied ethnic and regional stereotypes: "Tim O'Hara," (who mistakes a hermit crab for a spider with a shell, among other things); "The (intrusive) German,"; "The (Southern) Colonel." Farmer Brown's Boy made particularly frequent appearances.

Phil Hansling Jr. would appear (though his tree Q&As with Burgess would be spiced up with Avis bird calls). When zoo curator Clyde Gordon came on the show to give listeners a live sample of actual rattlesnake rattle, Burgess scripted in dramatic (but pretend) lunges by the snake. Edward Avis, in addition to his regular work supplying the intro and sound effects, was occasionally given space to spread out, as in an August 6, 1935 full-fledged "Birds Evening Concert." What is lacking, however, at least in the available scripts, is Burgess's often impassioned advocacy of environmental issues. While there is at least one script (May 7) where he rails against boys with slingshots and air rifles, it is unclear exactly what collective conservation efforts the League membership were supposed to take.

Burgess later expressed regret about the Brewer sponsorship (it seemed they interfered too much in the content of the program.) [It is worth noting, given Burgess's role in the Pure Food and Drug movement, that Brewer & Company was later cited by the FDA for false advertising around the benefits of Sun Glow] While Burgess himself was sometimes put in the role of a Sun Glow pitchman, that job was usually left to Mr. White. Where the Brewer connection was made the strongest, however, was in a series of newsletters distributed in drugstores.

Next: Radio Nature League News

Burgess returns to radio (1933-1934)

Note: Thornton Burgess returned to the WBZ airwaves on November 20, 1933. The show was now on Monday nights for 15 minutes. On July 30, 1934 the show was temporarily reduced to 10 minutes. On August 7, the show was moved to Tuesday at 7:15. The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University lacks the November 20 script, as well as scripts for January 22, March 12, July 9, October 13, and November 10, 1934. There were no programs on the following dates: December 11, 1933; May 7 and 14, 1934; August 14, 21, 28, 1934; September 8, 1934; November 24, 1934. Mrs. Burgess substituted on February 5, April 9, and October 27, 1934.

The year or so of programs I have labeled "Burgess Radio Talks" were a return to Burgess's roots in children's programing. Instead of actively avoiding reference to his work for children, as he had during the years of the Radio Nature League, Burgess now thoroughly incorporated his bedtime stories. Many shows now began, like his newspaper feature, with a short poem attributed to a bedtime story character. While he continued to draw upon correspondence with listeners for program content there was no explicit use of the "Radio Nature League" concept. When Mrs. Burgess substituted, she would read an old story rather than serving as a program host. Finally, Burgess would use the program to promote his new field guide, Birds You Should Know--offering autographed copies directly for sale. In short, the Burgess Radio Talks of this period served to promote Thornton Burgess. (LaFollette (2008) has him admit as much in correspondence with Austin Clark).

That said, the program maintained a strong environmental focus and Burgess continued his advocacy of particular concerns (don't buy fringed gentians, help reform deer hunting laws, rid the trees of tent caterpillar nests etc.) Most remarkable is an episode that ran on November 3, 1934 devoted entirely to an anti-steel trap referendum on the Massachusetts ballot. (A "yes" vote would overturn the current "humane" law that Burgess himself had helped establish) Burgess presents several stories painting scenes of actual animals (e.g., a three-legged skunk) that had been caught in such traps, told from their point of view.

Burgess had greater ambitions for the program, however, actively seeking a sponsor that could take the show to the next level and ensure its continuation. On December 22, the show suddenly had a formal introduction and a "theme song" (actually a robin's song performed by Edward Avis) and on December 29, Burgess posed a question to his audience: would two fifteen-minute episodes a week be too much?

Next: The Radio Nature League on the Sunglow Program (1935-1936).

Radio Nature League (1930)

Note: The Radio Nature League moved from 8 to 8:15 Saturday night on February 15. On August 2, Burgess concluded the first run of the program.

In 1930 there was increasing pressure on the Radio Nature League from national programming and decreasing support from WBZ. According to LaFollette (2008), Burgess had auditioned with NBC for a network program in late 1929 but was rejected because he was thought to appeal to children only. Burgess had also lost much of his fortune (he had been one of the wealthiest men authors in Massachusetts) in the stock market crash, making time-consuming, non-remunerative work problematic. On August 2, citing a need to return to his "means of livelihood" full time and praising the work of the League as a whole, he announced the last meeting of the Radio Nature League for the foreseeable future. The "disbanding" of the Radio Nature League had been widely circulated in the press, so many listeners were prepared for the announcement; in fact, Burgess did not "disband" the League, instead he hoped that members would carry on their work on behalf of the natural environment without the program.

On January 25, Burgess announced the results of the Ruffed Grouse research project: the destructive parasite, "dispharynx," found in grouse intestines came from infected pill bugs. On the same program Burgess exhorted League members to write their congressmen in support of a Norbeck-sponsored bill to protect Bald Eagles (the bill would pass in the Senate but ultimately fail in the House).

Speakers included:

• February 15: Philip Hansling Jr. on "The winter care of trees."
• May 10: Dr. Philip Garman of the Connecticut Experimental Station at New Haven, on the oriental peach moth.
• June 28: Philip Hansling Jr. Scripted Q&A with Burgess about the care of trees.

During 1930, Burgess would increasingly devote long slices of program time to the work of single correspondents. For example: On March 15, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, Burgess read a long story submitted by "Old Bill Blizzard" about the end of toads and snakes in Ireland. On the same program, Burgess discovered that J. Alden Loring (an ornithologist a naturalist and old associate of Teddy Roosevelt) was a listener and invited him to contribute extended notes about birds (which he did on subsequent weeks). On May 3 Burgess read a long essay by Clarence Hawkes ("Blind Poet of Hadley") about the loss of his dog to "killers."

Next: Burgess returns to radio (1933)

One-week hiatus

Taking a vacation break. Gatorland here we come!

Radio Nature League (1929)

Note: On November 9, the program would move from its long-standing Wednesday evening slot to Saturday night, initially at 7:00, but then at 8:00 starting November 30. Several scripts in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center collection are missing pages (Jan 30, Feb 6). These were apparently sent to William Hornaday, in connection with his work promoting the Norbeck Refuge bill. There was no meeting on February 13. Mrs B guest hosted March 20. TWB took a 6 week vacation beginning June 5. Several meetings were held, with guest hosts: J.H. Taylor On June 5; Phillip Hansling Jr. on June 19 and July 10. The November 23 script is missing. The HGARC Collection also includes a special Arctic/Antarctic broadcast TWB did on Feb 16 for Commander Byrd and his "gallant associates" in the south, and others "representing civilization" in the far north.

January to December 1929

This would be the last full year of the Radio Nature League. WBZ was now an affiliate in the NBC Blue/WJZ network, a retransmitter of programming originating in New York. It was increasingly difficult to find a place on the air for a "sustaining" (i.e., non-sponsored) program, regardless of its popularity. Initially Saturday at 7:00 seemed like a safe haven but then along came "Amos and Andy"... Thornton Burgess would voice his doubts about the future of the program on the air (and would be met with a flurry of correspondence urging him on).

The speaker series was now greatly curtailed, featuring mostly Philip Hansling Jr and a new associate, J.H. Taylor, Highway Landscape Supervisor for the State of Massachusetts. Here are the dates and topics:

• January 16: Philip Hansling Jr., on "A few of our historical and famous trees."
• April 3: Philip Hansling Jr., "How to maintain trees in health and beauty."
• April 10: Burgess read extended remarks on the passenger pigeon by Clarence Hawkes, "blind poet and naturalist from Hadley, MA." (Hawkes was a friend of the show).
  
• June 5: J.H. Taylor on beautifying roadsides.
• April 17: Burgess read "Waiting for the Chief Buzzard," a story in dialect by Uncle Dove Reynolds (as transcribed by Captain Inman F. Eldridge.)
  
• July 10: Roger B. Friend, entomlogist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station.
• August 14: J.H. Taylor
• August 28: J.H. Taylor on "Use of highways and prevention of abuse of them"
• September 18: Phil Hansling Jr. on "What we can do for trees."

The fourth and final annual caterpillar crusade was held in March, offering prizes from many different local organizations. (By this point some groups were complaining that they could no longer find enough tent caterpillar eggs.) The top school prize was $25, the top scout prize was $20, and the top individual prize was $10. There were separate prizes for the top collectors in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

Several new themes emerged this year:

• Burgess joined with William Hornaday to promote the "Norbeck game refuge bill" (The Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929). There were appeals to listeners in January and February. Burgess announced its passage on February 20.
• Maine had recently declared the black-capped chickadee to be the State Bird. Burgess asked his listeners to vote for official birds for other New England states. This topic continued for several months.
  
• There was a new scientific request from Harold Babcock for the stomach contents of owls, particularly snakes.

In March, Burgess was the victim of a hoax. A correspondent had written reporting the birth of a white-tailed deer fawn in January. While Burgess was cautious in his response, he treated it as truthful, calling it the earliest record in Massachusetts. The following week, he led the program with an apology--he was "humiliated"--the correspondent had falsely used the identity of another correspondent. Burgess emphasized how much he relied on the "good will" of his correspondents.

Next: Radio Nature League (1930)

Radio Nature League (1928)

Note: There were apparently no shows on: May 16 and May 23; July 4 and July 11 (TWB was fishing in New Brunswick); and August 22 and October 17 (TWB blamed politics). TWB was absent for June 27 show (it is unclear who filled in).

January to December 1928

In 1928, the Radio Nature League continued to grow. By the end of the year, Thornton Burgess would claim a membership of 50,000. The Boston Society of Natural History speakers series would end (it moved to WEEI) but Burgess still shared papers with Austin Clark of the Smithsonian.

Guest speakers, papers , and special programs:

• January 18: Harold L. Babcock on "New England Salamanders."
• February 1: James H. Emerton on spiders.
• February 22 & 29: Both shows were devoted to a retelling of TWB's salmon fishing trip to Nova Scotia the previous June. Mrs. B participated in the storytelling (she also loved fishing).
• April 11: Charles Crawford Gorst performed birdsongs
• April 25: Phil Hansling Jr. had a scripted Q&A with TWB about trees
• August 8: Austin Clark paper on "Giants of the Animal World" (TWB was the reader).
• August 29: Phil Hansling Jr. on "Trees with Personalities."
• October 3: Doris M. Cochran paper on "Lizards and their kin" (TWB was the reader).
• October 31: Frederick C. Lincoln paper on "Migration and facts discovered through banding." (TWB was the reader).

In order to provide an idea of what a typical "members" or "experience" program (nights when there was no guest speaker) was like I've chosen an episode at random (February 8). It provides a sense of the type and range of topics as well as the geographical spread of League membership. I've listed the location of the correspondent first and the topic second. All items are paraphrased.

• Springfield, MA. Chickens killed by feeding them overly salted cookies.
• Springfield, MA. Q: Are the ducks in Forest Park the same as the summer ones? A: A mix.
• Boston, MA. Q: ID of flock of robin-sized birds. A: Starlings.
• Connecticut. Q: Do you agree with the bounty on goshawks? A: No. Too many innocent hawks will be killed.
• Springfield, MA. A very intelligent pet oriole.
• Quincy, MA. A swimming rattlesnake.
• New London, CT. A suggestion for a home-made bird bath.
• Warren, MA. A water snake that caught a trout.
• Canton Center, CT. Litter of squirrels discovered in winter.
• Colerain, MA. Q: How often do deer shed their antlers? A: Once a year.
• Indian Orchard, MA. Q: Why won't my canary sing? A: Try changing its seed.
• Bartlett, NH. Squirrels ingenious at stealing bird food.
• Woburn, MA. Q: Do mourning doves overwinter? A: Some do.
• East Templeton, MA. Copperheads born alive.
• TWB asks listeners to provide information about Great Horned Owls for Dr. Gross.
• Gardiner, ME. Leominster, MA, Springfield, MA. Reports of evening grosbeaks and wintering robins.
• TWB thanks listeners for donations to Radio Nature Fund and Bird Hospital.
• Sunderland, MA. Ram's head lady's slipper.
• Thomaston, CT. Heard phoebe's song (TWB: No. A chickadee)
• Thomaston, CT. Q: What to feed tadpole. A: Stuff from bottom of pond. Plus hard-boiled egg bits.
• TWB welcomes new scout members from East Grandby, CT.
• TWB announces special episode for following week (imaginary radio tour of Nova Scotia). [This would actually air two weeks later]
  
• Ends with signature sign-off. "Good evening, Neighbors. Goodnight, kiddies."

Finally, on November 28, Burgess paid tribute to the memory of W.S. Quinby, a local coffee importer, who had provided the Radio Nature League with money for clerical support and tent caterpillar prizes since the previous spring (and also was the chief financial support behind broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra).

Next: Radio Nature League 1929

Radio Nature League (1927 May to December)

Note: On June 9, TWB was invited to talk as part of the opening ceremonies for WBZA studios at the Hotel Statler in Boston. In a speech, Burgess highlighted the role of radio as an educational force and a medium which allows "intimate contact" with the home. TWB was absent on June 15, June 22 and June 29 (he was in Nova Scotia; A.E. Bach substituted ). On August 31, the show would break for six weeks while TWB and his family visited Panama. It resumed on November 2. There doesn't appear to have been a meeting on December 14.

May to December, 1927

Items of note:

• In May Thornton Burgess solicited from listeners over $1000 in donations to the Red Cross for flood victims in Arkansas and Louisiana. This wouldn't be the last time he'd use the Radio Nature League for the "conservation of human life."
• The program on June 1 featured another "Bird Hike" with Edward Avis. Avis was given some time to talk about and demonstrate British birds. (Avis's British bird work can be heard here).
• On November 2, the entire program was devoted to Burgess's experiences during his Panama trip. He narrated a typical tour (sans sound effects) through the jungle.
• Philip Hansling Jr spoke on trees (November 23). He was the only guest speaker this period.

Open hunting season on white-tailed deer in Massachusetts began on the first week in December. Burgess deplored the way the state conducted the season and would use the Radio Nature League as a forum to express his discontent (in future years he would call it "The Annual Slaughter of Innocents" and the "Orgy of Killers."). It also provided him with the opportunity to draw a line between mere hunters and true "sportsmen." On December 7 (his comments were also published in the Burgess Radio Nature League column on January 8) he offered a definition. A sportsmen, he argued, is a man who

respects the laws governing hunting and fishing and lives up to the spirit of them as well as the letter of them. But more than this, he is a man who finds his pleasure in the pursuit rather than the kill, to whom a kill is in reality incidental--the reward for his skill. He is the man who refuses to take unfair advantage of his quarry. He is the man who, when a species is becoming scarce, refuses to go out and hunt just because the law says that he may....Of true sportsmen we have but a few. Of killers--why the woods are full of them.

As one might expect, Burgess was inundated with correspondence for and against this position and this sportsman vs. killer rhetoric would continue every December when the deer season began. Some of Burgess's modest suggestions for reform (only bucks should be taken; there should be a ban on automatic weapons) were eventually adopted, though not during the tenure of the Radio Nature League.

Next: Radio Nature League 1928