You’ve yet to have your finest hour

Truer words were never spoken, based on what I worked on today. I digitized a fascinating old relic titled “Halls of Ivy.” For the first time, I actually snickered while I was listening to the program. It was so cheesy and corny. The show takes place at Ivy College, in Ivy USA. The focus of the show is the president of the college and his wife.

The episode I listened dealt with the father of one of the students, and his father the reverend. The father was upset that his son wants to be a composer instead of become a reverend, like every other male in the blood line. I was expecting to hear the father and son discuss the issue, but no. Instead there was this random flashback to the courtship of the president and his wife, which had nothing to do the main-plot of the episode. The father-son issue was resolved out of earshot of the listener, during a car-ride we never hear, and the solution was just presented to the audience. What we did get to hear is an incredibly cheesy gospel song about calling the man upstairs.

However, the closing theme was breathtaking; I listened to it multiple times. It pinpointed the radio show at a specific moment in time, the early 1950’s. The theme sounded like one of the old pre-rock male vocal groups, such as The Letterman or The Four Freshman. The radio show represents a very important historical moment. The youth market was not yet recognized. While the story is about older adolescents, the focus is on the adults. The central characters are the president and his wife, not the college students. Also, it is so close to following the format of a sitcom, but does not. It’s almost like there working out the formula, but just hadn’t quite figured it out yet. Also the show is very much part of the pre-rock era, but so close to the rock era you can practically taste what’s coming.

P.S: I realize this the second reference to “Radio Ga Ga,” but it is an underrated Queen song, and so fitting for my project