FLASHBACK: "Washboard Weepers" on the Radio (1943)

"Washboard Weepers" was a common name for radio serials in the 1930s and 1940s along with "soap operas". The article below from the Milwaukee Journal was first published on October 10, 1943. It details the most popular weepers of the day.

A soap opera is one of the 50 or more 15 minute daytime serials that are to be heard Monday through Friday on the two biggest networks--NBC and CBS--and to a lesser degree on independent stations and regional chains. The Blue Network proudly boasts that it has no soap operas. Most Mutual stations have a few. There are soap operas in Polish, Italian, French adn Yiddish.

They got the title "soap opera" because a large number, if not even a majority, are sponsored by companies manufacturing soap and allied products. Food processors and drug houses pay the way of most of the rest.

The daytime serial began to spread its gloomy shadow over the daytime airwaves about 1930, when network broadcasting had begun to crystallize the tastes of listeners. Painted Dreams, which left WGN and WMAQ a few months ago, was one of the oldest serials in point of continued service, having first begun to agonize in 1931. Oh, the sin and suffering that took place on Painted Dreams! The heartbreak, the corny dialog!

Oddly, there was a 15 minute serial story on WENR in 1925, but it was ahead of its time. Titled The Smith Family, it was written by a vaudeville couple, Jim and Marian Jordan, who are now known all over the world as Fibber McGee, comedians.

Since 1931 the soap opera has been given considerable refinement. When it was found that there was money in the game, writing and directing brains were attracted to it, with the result that many serials today are slick technical jobs. But with few exceptions the product is tailored to the lowest common denominator of the listener's mentality and emotions. They have found that the particular market at which the soap opera is aimed doesn't want anything more elevating. The other listeners can wait until evening.

(click the images below to read the entire article)