Breaking Walls James Scully

At 11:30AM CBS interrupted their scheduled mid-day programming for a newsbreak and a speech from Charles De Gaulle.

Born in 1890, De Gaulle was a decorated soldier during the First World War. He repeatedly admonished his superiors for outdated nineteenth century fighting techniques which included bayonet charges against heavy artillery. De Gaulle’s company became known for sneaking into German territory to spy on the enemy. He was a fierce combat veteran, having been shot in the knee, the left hand, being gassed, and receiving a bayonet wound. He was eventually captured by the Germans, spending thirty-two months as a POW.

In between the wars he was a strong supporter of tanks and mobile armored divisions. During the German invasion of May 1940, De Gaulle led an armored division counterattack, and was soon appointed Undersecretary for War.

Refusing to accept his government's armistice with Germany, De Gaulle fled to England. He led the Free French Forces and later headed the French National Liberation Committee, emerging as the undisputed leader of Free France. De Gaulle became head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic three days before D-Day. On D-Day he was campaigning for his Provisional Government to be recognized as an official full government.

The woman you just heard is famed New York character actress Jan Miner. In the mid-1940s Jan was on multiple soap operas, like Lora Lawton.

Many top shows were produced by Frank and Anne Hummert. The Hummert radio ties grew from the prominent Chicago advertising agency, Blackett-Sample-and Hummert. Frank Hummert was a celebrated copywriter. His wife, Anne Schumacher Ashenhurst Hummert began as an editorial assistant and quickly earned respect throughout the organization thanks to her ingenuity, insight, and resolve.

By the 1940s, the duo controlled four-and-a-half hours of national weekday broadcast schedules. They brought in more than half of the network daytime hour advertising revenue and their shows received more than five million pieces of correspondence annually. When they switched their productions from Chicago to New York, they began employing some of New York’s most famous character actors.

At 11AM eastern time from New York, Amanda of Honeymoon Hill signed on starring Joy Hathaway. The show used a familiar Hummert theme: The common girl who marries into a rich, aristocratic family. She lived in the fictional Honeymoon Hill in Virginia.

When Amanda Of Honeymoon Hill signed off, another Hummert show, Second Husband, signed on at 11:30 starring Helen Menken. Ms. Menken is perhaps best remembered today as Humphrey Bogart’s first wife, but she was a talented actress in her own right. Throughout its history, one of the show’s announcers was Andre Baruch.

At 10AM CBS resumed programming with their mid-morning soap operas. First up was Valiant Lady, starring Joan Blaine. Joan was a valiant lady because she sacrificed a promising Broadway career for her father’s sake, then married a “brilliant but unstable" surgeon.

People like the just-heard Mandel Kramer loved working on soap operas from New York.

At 10:15AM Light of the World signed on starring Bret Morrison as “the Speaker.”

The show was a soap opera version of the stories of the bible and featured some of New York’s best talent like Mandel Kramer, Louise Fitch, and Alexander Scourby.

This D-Day broadcast was the very first episode of Light of the World on CBS. It had been running on NBC since March of 1940. It would run on CBS until August of 1946 before once again being picked up by NBC until June 2nd, 1950.

When Light of the World signed off, The Open Door signed on at 10:30. Created by Sandra Michael, The Open Door was a purposely slow-moving, character building show built around Dean Eric Hansen of the fictional Vernon University.

The stories involved people in his life: their problems, lives, and loves. The star, Dr. Alfred Dorf had known Sandra Michael since her childhood in Denmark. He’d come to America to establish a church in Brooklyn and was the true inspiration behind the character.

Unfortunately, the agency handling the sponsor’s account didn’t like the direction of the series. They pressured Sandra Michael into changing the show, but she resisted and the show was canceled after June 30th, 1944.

Once The Open Door signed off, Bachelor’s Children signed on at 10:45. It featured Hugh Studebaker as Dr. Bob Graham, a bachelor who took in his dying friend's 18-year-old twin daughters. Marjorie Hannan played Ruth Ann, the kind, thoughtful twin, and Patricia Dunlap played Janet, the fiery and impulsive twin. Olan Soule played Sam Ryder. He was, perhaps, best known for co-starring with Barbara Luddy on The First Nighter.

At 9AM eastern war time, CBS World News signed on with Douglas Edwards reporting. On D-Day Edwards was twenty-six years old. He’d been hired in 1942 by CBS as a reporter and understudy for John Daly.

When Daly was sent overseas to cover the war in 1943 Edwards was promoted to lead The World Today, World News Today, and Report to the Nation. In 1945, Edwards was sent to London to cover the final weeks of the war with Edward R. Murrow. He was then appointed the network's news bureau chief in Paris and assigned to cover post-war elections in Germany and the start of the Nuremberg trials.

By this time, fourteen thousand Canadian troops had taken Juno Beach, pressing inland. British and American forces, including those at Omaha, took control of their beachheads. The Allies brought in tanks, tended to the wounded and cleared away mines on the beaches. They also started pressuring German forces at Caen. Hitler finally agreed to send reinforcements to Normandy.

Once World News Today signed off Robert Trout was back on the air for the final forty-five minutes of the special news broadcast.

I just phoned CBS news headquarters at 485 Madison Avenue. I’m told that they’ll resume scheduled programming at 10AM. NBC has canceled all programming until further notice. Mutual and The Blue Network are interspersing news throughout the day.

The Stock Exchange will observe two minutes of silence and Mayor La Guardia will be holding a rally in Madison Square.

As for me, I’ve been momentarily dismissed. I’m heading home to get some rest. Meanwhile, let’s listen to Bob Trout. Charles Shaw will report from London with a man-on-the-street reaction while Ned Calmer and Don Pryor will introduce French Colonel Morrison who’ll describe the area of the invasion landings.

This will take us to 6:30 AM.

As part of my job I’ve been sent by CBS to Union Square. I decided to stop by my high school alma mater, I’m at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on sixteenth street. They’re having a sunrise mass filled with prayer for our soldiers and other war workers. The people are stoic. Now isn’t the time to lose ourselves in emotion.

Sunrise is at 5:25AM. I hear American troops have turned the tide of battle at the Omaha landing point, with warships backing them up at sea.

Give a listen to the CBS broadcast. David Anderson, Arthur Mann, Paul White, and Edward R. Murrow have reports from London. Quentin Reynolds will describe Eisenhower’s speech to occupied Europe, while Bill Henry and Joe McCaffrey report from Washington.