John Nesbitt's Passing Parade

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The Passing Parade, a.k.a. John Nesbitt's Passing Parade, was an American radio series created, written, and narrated by John Nesbitt which was adapted into an Oscar-winning series of MGM short subjects. In both media, the series usually focused on strange but true historical events, both little known and famous, as well as figures such as Catherine de' Medici and Nostradamus.

Passing Parade on radio[]

The radio series, developed as an outgrowth of an earlier Nesbitt-produced program (Headlines of the Past), was launched on the NBC network on February 1, 1937, running off and on until 1951 over three different networks and in syndication. Nesbitt's inspiration was a trunk left to him by his father which contained news clippings of odd stories from around the world. Nesbitt, who usually presented his stories without sound effects or music, utilized a research staff of 14 people in verifying the details of his tales, but wrote the final scripts himself, often within an hour of airtime.[1]

Joseph M. Koehler described the unusual nature of the program in a review in the July 31, 1943, issue of Billboard: "There was a time when no one could be sold the idea that one man, without much musical help, could fill a half hour and hold his audience. Nesbitt has disproved the bromide because he's Nesbitt and spins a yarn that's as tight as an Armistice announcement."[2]

The Passing Parade was heard as a segment on The John Charles Thomas Show (1943-1946).[3]

Radio producer/announcer John Doremus later acquired the rights to the series and revived it as a late 1950s-early 1960s syndicated feature, billing his version as "from the files of John Nesbitt." Over 1500 three-minute episodes were broadcast.[4]

Parade on film[]

The series of Passing Parade one-reel short subjects was produced for MGM from 1938 to 1949.[5] Most of the films featured the slow movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 as the opening theme music. The directors included Fred Zinnemann and Jacques Tourneur.

The films were re-edited for television syndication by MGM in the early 1960s. The shorts in their original form were eventually re-aired (and as of 2021 are still being aired) on Turner Classic Movies. These episodes can also be found as DVD extras accompanying some MGM films.

Year Title Subject matter Cast Home video availability
1938 Passing Parade with Margaret Bert
1938 The Face Behind the Mask The Man in the Iron Mask with Leonard Penn, directed by Jacques Tourneur
1939 The Story of Alfred Nobel Alfred Nobel with Paul Guilfoyle
1939 Angel of Mercy with Sara Haden
1939 Yankee Doodle Goes to Town
1939 The Story that Couldn't be Printed with Victor Kilian
1939 One Against the World with Jonathan Hale
1940 The Hidden Master with Peter Cushing, Emmett Vogan, and Louis Jean Heydt
1940 A Way in the Wilderness Joseph Goldberger's research on pellagra with Shepperd Strudwick
1940 Trifles of Importance with Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Robert Taylor, Myrna Loy, Mickey Rooney, and Franklin D. Roosevelt
1940 Utopia of Death
1940 Dreams
1940 American Spoken Here with John Harmon, Barbara Bedford, and Ray Teal
1941 Willie and the Mouse
1941 This is the Bowery
1941 Of Pups and Puzzles
1941 Strange Testament with Edward Ashley and Ava Gardner
1942 We Do It Because— with Ava Gardner, Dorothy Morris, and Mark Daniels Reunion in France (DVD)
1942 The Woman in the House with Ann Richards
1942 The Incredible Stranger with Paul Guilfoyle, Dorothy Vaughan, and Walter Baldwin
1942 The Magic Alphabet Christiaan Eijkman's discovery of vitamins with Horace McNally Great Day in the Morning (DVD)
1942 The Film that Was Lost Film preservation
1943 Madero of Mexico Francisco I. Madero with Paul Guilfoyle and
1943 Who's Superstitious? Common superstitions with Don Taylor, , Fred Toones, and Margaret Bert
1943 That's Why I Left You with Jacqueline White and James Warren
1943 Forgotten Treasure Film preservation
1943 Storm
1943 To My Unborn Son with Steven Geray
1944 Return from Nowhere with Don DeFore
1944 A Lady Fights Back SS Normandie 30 Seconds Over Tokyo (DVD)
1945 The Seesaw and the Shoes Rene Laennec's invention of the stethoscope; Charles Goodyear's invention of vulcanized rubber
1945 The Great American Mug History of the barber shop Thrill of a Romance (DVD)
1945 Stairway to Light Philippe Pinel with Wolfgang Zilzer and Gene Roth; won an Oscar for Best One-Reel Short Subject The Picture of Dorian Gray (DVD)
1945 People on Paper with Harold Knerr (The Katzenjammer Kids), Bud Fisher (Mutt and Jeff), Fred Lasswell (Barney Google and Snuffy Smith), Frank King (Gasoline Alley), Chester Gould (Dick Tracy), Dick Calkins (), Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates), Chic Young (Blondie and Dagwood), Raeburn Van Buren (Abbie an' Slats), Ham Fisher (Joe Palooka), Hal Foster (Prince Valiant), Harold Gray (Little Orphan Annie) and Al Capp (Li'l Abner)
1946 Golden Hunch
1946 Magic on a Stick John Walker's invention of the friction match with Paul Langton and Jacqueline White
1946 Our Old Car with Jacqueline White
1947 A Really Important Person with Dean Stockwell, Connie Gilchrist, Clancy Cooper, and Song of the Thin Man (DVD)
1947 Tennis in Rhythm
1948 Goodbye, Miss Turlock with Nana Bryant; won an Oscar for Best One-Reel Short Subject Fiesta (DVD)
1948 My Old Town
1948 Souvenirs of Death Command Decision (DVD)
1948 The Fabulous Fraud Anton Mesmer and hypnotism with John Baragrey, Phyllis Morris, Marcia Mae Jones, and Morris Ankrum
1949 Annie Was a Wonder with Kathleen Freeman, , Ruth Lee, and The Barkleys of Broadway (DVD)
1949 Mr. Whitney Had a Notion Eli Whitney and interchangeable parts with Lloyd Bridges On the Town (Blu-ray)
1949 City of Children Mooseheart, Illinois

References[]

  1. ^ Dunning, John (1998). On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 533. ISBN 0-19-507678-8. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  2. ^ Koehler, Joseph M. (July 31, 1943). "Program Reviews: "The Passing Parade". Billboard. p. 12. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  3. ^ Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-4513-4. P. 177.
  4. ^ "The Passing Parade", Grace Gibson Productions.
  5. ^ Slide, Anthony (2014). The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry. Routledge. ISBN 9781135925543. Retrieved 30 July 2016.

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