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Fibber McGee and Molly

Radio Comedy Series

For three decades, the consummate comedians Jim Jordan(1896–1988) and his wife Marian Driscoll (1898–1961) imi-tated and mocked the habits of middle-class American home-owners. They began as musicians and vaudevillians. Thesetheatrical experiences, plus several radio series, prepared themfor the initial broadcast of Fibber McGee and Molly on Tues-day, 16 April 1935. (The show lasted in various forms until1959.) The Jordans and their writers, mainly Don Quinn andlater Phil Leslie, wisely preserved what worked. During the1940s, fans always voted it one of their favorite programs.Expressions like “Fibber McGee’s closet” percolated into pop-ular speech. So did tag lines like Molly’s (Marian) “T’aintfunny, McGee,” Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve’s (Hal Peary)“You’re a haaard man, McGee,” and the Old Timer’s (BillThompson) “That’s pretty funny, Johnny, but that ain’t theway I heerd it.” (Fibber McGee’s overstuffed closet became anAmerican icon, probably for two reasons: it symbolized theunpredictable fullness of the McGees’ world, and its sound offalling hip boots, mandolin, Aunt Sarah’s picture, and moosehead—a triumph of sound effects—consoled listeners who hada similar storage problem. A replica may be seen at theMuseum of Broadcasting in Chicago.)

Their modest home at 79 Wistful Vista attracted visitorsfrom a wide variety of social, economic, and ethnic back-grounds. Such conviviality required explanation becauseMcGee was often uncivil, arguing with bankers and bus driv-ers and department store managers, a dynamo of precariousamiability. Luckily, Molly moderated his bumptious unconviv-iality so that their many callers simultaneously experienced thecontradictory ideals of defensive homeowner and welcominghostess.

The perilous balance of discourtesy and diplomacy allowedMcGee to insult guests and still retain their friendship. DocGamble (Arthur Q. Bryan) often received the master’s barbs.One time the doctor looked forward to a vacation he saidwould leave him “ship shape.” Ever the deflator of other peo-ple’s fantasies, McGee agreed that the doctor already lookedlike a great big “stern wheeler.” In keeping with the Americanspirit of fair play and the aesthetic rule that helplessness is notfunny, Doc returned these insults with agility. Once he scoldedMcGee for being too cheap to buy a proper suit, dubbing Fib-ber a “rhinestone Jim Brady” and “our little Lucius Booby inthat pin-stripe awning he uses for a sport coat.”

Similarly, other drop-ins to their parlor had positions thatwould ordinarily merit respect but instead received imperti-nence. Policemen were called “lugans” and “larrigans,” told totake off their hats, and given false information (asked his

name, Fibber replied, “Herman Gibbletripe—and this is mywife Clara”). Mayor LaTrivia (Gale Gordon), outside theMcGees’ home an effective orator, dissolved into babble at theMcGees’. He boasted that the City Council had opposed him,but he had “stuck to [his] guns.” Both Fibber and Molly con-founded him by asking why an elected official needed weap-ons, suggesting that he might have been more successful if hehad not threatened them, and finally warning him that gunsshould not be tolerated.

Fibber reacted to aristocrats with a peculiar mixture ofenvy—which prompted get-rich projects to find a substitute forsugar or turn paper back into cloth—and disdain. Despite allthe wealth of grand dames like Abigail Uppington (Isabel Ran-dolph) and Millicent Carstairs (Bea Benedaret), Fibber com-mented that the latter “acts like a coquettish dray horse.” Headmired clothing store dummies for their “nonchalant, super-cilious, haughty” look: “It takes six generations of money inthe family to achieve an expression like that.” Molly personal-ized his sociological dictum: “Yes, it’s strange how often avacant face goes with a full pocketbook, which ought to giveyou a very expressive countenance.”

Because he never seemed to work and borrowed tools with-out returning them, McGee’s own income remained ambigu-ous. He yearned for money so much that he ripped apart theirantique sofa to find $20,000 hidden by an ancestor—$20,000Confederate, that is. The appearance of a maid on someshows, variously called Beulah (played by a man, Marlin Hurt)or Lena (Gene Carroll, also a man), hinted that he was pros-perous; the appearance of a renter, Alice Darling (ShirleyMitchell), a gabby factory worker, on other episodes suggestedthat he needed spare cash. The general impression was of ahousehold relatively secure in the economic parade.

Located in the middle of the middle class, McGee often wasbested by those whom snobs would have considered beneathconcern. When Ole Swenson (Dick LeGrand), the Swedish jan-itor at the Elks’ Club, said his boy in the submarine service wason a secret mission, McGee paraphrased loftily, “Sub rosa,eh?” Ole calmly torpedoed the hifalutin’ Latin with, “No, sub-marine.” Likewise, the recently immigrated Nick DePopoulous(Bill Thompson) steamrolled over “Fizzer,” telling his owntales with nonstop, heavily accented malapropisms.

Far from being disturbed by unpredictable standards forsocial deportment, people in McGee’s universe enjoyed theanarchy. Wallace Wimple (Bill Thompson), the hen-peckedvictim of “Sweetie Face,” his “big, old wife,” just wanted tobe alone with his bird book. To avoid her abuse, Wallacesecretly rented a room under the name “Lancelot Eisenhower

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Fibber McGee and MollyCourtesy Radio Hall of Fame

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Dempsey”—a name, he explained dreamily, that “justappealed to me somehow. It’s such a brave name.”

Two final visitors show how the give-and-take of theirpeculiar hosting rituals eliminated barriers. After Fibber read abedtime story to Teeny (Marian), the precocious little neighborgirl, she asked, “What’s a ‘dell’?” Fibber: “Oh, it’s a kind ofshady nook in the woods where green things grow.” Teeny:“You mean like dell pickles.” Announcer Harlow Wilcox, evertouting the benefits of Johnson’s Wax, delivered his pitchesdespite McGee’s interruptions.

Just as the program democratically blurred social distinc-tions, the language too evaded rules. McGee frequently deliv-ered such tongue-tangling monologues as:

When I worked in the big mill there, I was quite thedude. ‘Mill Dude McGee’ I was known as. Mill DudeMcGee, a magnificent mass of muscle and manly man-ners mesmerizing the maidens in the Midwest and men-tioned most every month in many of the men’smagazines as the mirror and model for male millinerymerchants, meticulous material manufacturers, and mis-cellaneous members of the metropolitan mob, mightyand magnetic from November through May.

Individual words, like manners, evolved into new forms. Aftergetting Mayor LaTrivia’s goat, Fibber bragged to Molly, “Hesure gets worked up, don’t he? He was just liver with rage.”

MOLLY: You mean livid, Dearie.FIBBER: Go on, livid is a girl’s name, like Livid De Haviland.MOLLY: That’s Olivia,FIBBER: Oh, don’t kid me, Snookie. Olivia’s a country in South America.

During another episode, Fibber skipped from “subtle to subti-tle to scuttle to shuttle to chateau.” Such celebrations of socialand linguistic independence during decades of Depression, war,and tumultuous recovery that required national conformityexplain the enduring appeal of Fibber McGee and Molly.

JAMES A. FREEMAN

See also Gordon, Gale; Situation Comedy; Sound Effects; Vaudeville

CastFibber McGee Jim JordanMolly McGee Marian JordanTeeny Marian JordanMrs. Abigail Uppington (1936–59) Isabel Randolph

Nick Depopoulous (1936–59) Bill ThompsonWiddicomb Blotto Bill ThompsonHoratio K. Boomer (1936–59) Bill ThompsonOld Timer (1937–59) Bill ThompsonWallace Wimple (1941–59) Bill ThompsonWallingford Tuttle Gildersleeve Cliff ArquetteThrockmorton P. Gildersleeve Harold Peary

(1939–59)Mayor LaTrivia (1941–59) Gale GordonFoggy Williams Gale GordonAlice Darling (1943–59) Shirley MitchellBeulah (1944–59) Marlin HurtMrs. Millicent Carstairs Bea BenaderetSilly Watson Hugh StudebakerUncle Dennis Ransom ShermanLena Gene CarrollAnnouncer (1935–53) Harlow WilcoxAnnouncer (1953–56) John Wald

Producers/DirectorsCecil Underwood, Frank Pittman, Max Hutto

Programming HistoryNBC Blue April 1935–June 1936NBC Red June 1936–1938NBC March 1938–September 1959

Further ReadingGriswold, J.B., “Up From Peoria,” The American Magazine

133 (March, 1942)Price, Tom, Fibber McGee’s Closet: The Ultimate Log of

Performances by Fibber McGee and Molly 1917–1987: A Celebration of the 52nd Anniversary of Fibber McGee and Molly and Jim’s 70 Years in Show Business, 2 volumes, Monterey, California: Thomas A. Price, 1987

Price, Tom, Performance Logs of Marian + Jim Jordan, #s 1–10, 1917–1980, Monterey, California: Thomas A. Price, 1980 (Contains logs of Air Scouts, 1927–1929; The Smith Family, 1927–1932; Farmer Rusk’s Top O’Morning, 1931–1932; Several Short Series, 1931–1934; Smackout, 1931–1935; Appearances and Specials, 1917–1980; Marquette, The Little French Girl, 1931–1932; Mr. Twister, Mind Trickster, 1932–1933; Kaltenmayer’s Kindergarten, 1932–1935; Fibber McGee and Molly, 1935–1959)

Stumpf, Charles, and Ben Ohmart, Fibber McGee’s Scrapbook, Boalsburg, Pennsylvania: BearManor Media, 2002

Stumpf, Charles, and Tom Price, Heavenly Days! The Story of Fibber McGee and Molly, Waynesville, North Carolina: The World of Yesterday, 1987

Yoder, Robert M, “The McGee’s of Wistful Vista,” The Saturday Evening Post 221 (April 9 and 16, 1949)