A Public Service Announcement - Our Miss Brooks

At the conclusion of the Our Miss Brooks radio show starring Eve Arden, of an episode called "English Test" which was broadcast over CBS radio on August 14, 1949 -- but after the final Colgate toothpowder commercial, that is -- came the following public service announcement:

Here is something for all of us to think over seriously:  Democracy stands for freedom, love, and tolerance, and it's up to each of us citizens to practice it daily, otherwise we subject America and our democracy to severe and destructive criticism from forces wishing to do away with the democratic way of life.

Now more than ever before, we must openly protest against anyone around us who speaks or infers slander against any individual or group because of racial or religious difference.  If not, we are selling out our heritage, our freedom, and our peace.

Many episodes of Our Miss Brooks and other popular programs were concluded with public service announcements of one kind or another: pleas for donations to the Red Cross, the Community Chest, a cancer fund.  This particular announcement is striking.  The dark forces waiting to bring down democracy by our failing to live up to it are not stipulated to be only foreign adversaries.  It seems inferred that these dark forces could exist here in this country.

It's a powerful passage especially for today.  We are balancing on a knife edge of insurrection.  People exist among us who want to take down democracy if we let them by our behavior.

A fascinating way to end a lighthearted screwball comedy radio show.  Today we are more on guard against being preached to, which for some people is far more egregious than losing our democracy.  Were the producers of Our Miss Brooks bold in taking such a stance?  Or did they know that their audience, who had just fought a long and terrible war against fascism, and winning it, would be receptive?

Were such a public service announcement made today at the end of a popular television show, what percentage of the population would complain that it was "political"?

And reject it?

We discussed the radio show, the TV show, and the movie Our Miss Brooks in this previous post.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Memories in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century. Her newspaper column on classic films, Silver Screen, Golden Memories is syndicated nationally.  Her new book, a collection of posts from this blog - Hollywood Fights Fascism - is available here on Amazon.