Cavalcade of America
Genre	Anthology drama
Running time	30 minutes
Country	United States
Language(s)	English
Home station	CBS (10/09/35-05/29/39) NBC (01/02/40-03/31/53)
Television adaptation(s)	NBC (10/01/52-09/02/53) ABC (09/29/53-06/21/55) ABC (09/06/55-06/04/57)
Host(s)	Walter Huston (09/18/44-02/12/45)
Starring	100's of Broadway and Hollywood stars
Creator(s)	Roy Durstine
Writer(s)	Arthur Miller, Norman Rosten, Robert Tallman, Peter Lyon, Robert Richards, Stuart Hawkins, Arthur Arent, Edith Sommer, Halsted Welles, Henry Denker, Priscilla Kent, Virginia Radcliffe, Frank Gabrielson, Margaret Lewerth, Morton Wishengrad, George Faulkner, Irve Tunick
Director(s)	Kenneth Webb, Homer Fickett, Bill Sweet, Homer Fickett, Jack Zoller
Producer(s)	Arthur Pryor, Louis Mason, Larry Harding, Homer Fickett, Jack Zoller, Roger Pryor, H.L. Blackburn
Air dates	October 9, 1935 – March 31, 1953
No. of series	18
No. of episodes	781
Audio format	Monaural sound
Opening theme	"March Theme" "Glory of America"

Cavalcade of America was a radio show between 1935 and 1953, pioneered the use of anthology drama for company voice advertising. The show was originally broadcast by Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) and was sponsored by the DuPont Company. Anthrology Drama, or Anthrology Dramas, or Anthrology Drama(s): Anthrology Dramas are dramas that are theatrical in nature. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_States. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... NBC (an abbreviation for National Broadcasting Company, its former corporate name) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ... Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist, and author. ... October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in leap years), with 275 days remaining. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Anthrology Drama, or Anthrology Dramas, or Anthrology Drama(s): Anthrology Dramas are dramas that are theatrical in nature. ... CBSs first color logo, which debuted in the fall of 1965. ... E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE: DD) was founded in July 1802 as a gun powder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont on Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware. ...

Cavalcade of America documented historical events using stories of individual courage, individual initiative and achievement. This was consistent with the company's overall conservative philosophy and legacy as an American company dating back to 1802. The Company's motto "Maker of better things for better living through chemistry" was read at the beginning of each show, and the show emphasized humanitarian progress, particularly improvements in the lives of women, often through technological innovation. Conservatism is a political philosophy that usually favors traditional values and strong foreign defense. ...

Background

The show was started as part of a successful campaign to reinvigorate DuPont. In the early 1930s the Nye Committee investigations, had concluded that DuPont had made a fortune profiteering in World War I. The company stood accused of encouraging an arms race between World War I enemies, after being heavily subsidized by the Allies to increase black powder production. The negative effects of the investigation left the Company demoralized, directionless and with a horrible corporate image in the middle of the Great Depression. The Nye Committee studied the causes of United States involvement in World War I between 1934 and 1936. ... The act of price gouging in an undersupplied market. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert Henry Asquith Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow... The term arms race in its original usage describes a competition between two or more parties for military supremacy. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert Henry Asquith Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow... Look up ally in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Black powder was the original gunpowder and practically the only known propellant and explosive until the middle of the 19th century. ... The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downturn which started in October of 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930s. ...

For 18 years prior to Cavalcade of America, DuPont had advertised on radio to inform the public what DuPont did for a living. Its products were primarily not for public consumption, so there was no purpose in promoting them through advertising. As a solution to DuPont's troubles, Roy Durstine then creative director of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn proposed the creation and sponsorship of Cavalcade of America using the company motto. This was to be an important element in the successful re-branding of DuPont as an American legacy engaged in making products for the well-being of Americans and humanity in general.

Content

Ironically, DuPont's image problems lead the company to promote some pacifist and socialist ideals. DuPont stipulated several topics would be taboo on the show such as gun fire of any kind, which attracted writers such as Norman Rosten and Arthur Miller who had signed the Oxford Pledge while at University of Michigan. The show was also able to attract some fairly prominent writers of the time such as Maxwell Anderson, Stephan Vincent Benet, Carl Sandburg and Robert Sherwood to write episodes. The Yale University historian Frank Monaghan advised to ensure that scripts were historically accurate. Pacifist may mean: an advocate of pacifism. ... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist, and author. ... The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (UM or U of M) is a coeducational public research university in the U.S. state of Michigan. ... (James) Maxwell Anderson (15 December 1888 – 28 February 1959) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, author, poet, reporter and lyricist, and a founding member of The Playwrights Company (which included, at various times, Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Elmer Rice, Robert E. Sherwood, Sidney Howard, Roger L. Stevens, John F... Carl Sandburg in 1955 Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, historian, novelist, balladeer and folklorist. ... Robert Emmet Sherwood (4 April 1896–14 November 1955) American playwright, editor, and screenwriter. ... Yale redirects here. ...

Nylon show

On May 15, 1940 DuPont made nylon women's hosiery available to the public and began an advertising blitz. The day was designated "N" day by DuPont's marketeers and an entire episode of Cavalcade of America was purchased. This show was markedly different: DuPont selected a "typical" housewife to interview G. P. Hoff, Director of Research of DuPont's Nylon Division. In the interview, which was rigged, Hoff had the opportunity to say many dazzling things about the virtues of nylon. The next morning thousands of women lined up in front of department stores hours before they opened to get nylon hose, or what we today call nylons. 750,000 nylons had been manufactured for N-Day, and they all sold out in the first day they went on sale. May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers first produced on February 28, 1935 by Gerard J. Berchet of Wallace Carothers research group at DuPont. ... Hosiery describes undergarments worn directly on the feet and legs. ...

Television

In 1953 DuPont switched its advertising strategy from radio to television, and Cavalcade of America became a television show.

References

• Godfrey, Donald G. and Leigh, Frederic A. (1998). Historical Dictionary of American Radio. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313296367. 
• Gregory, James R. and Wiechmann, Jack G. (1999). Marketing Corporate Image. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books. ISBN 0844233072. 
• Horten, Gerd (2003). Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda During World War II. Berkeley, CA; London: University of California Press. ISBN 0520240618. 
• Radio Broadcast Log Of: Cavalcade Of America. Audio Classics Archive. Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
• The OTR.Network Library, Cavalcade of America