The Aldrich Family
Synopsis by Michael Kallam

	"Hen-reee!  Hen-reee Al-drich!"
	"Coming, Mother!"

	This well remembered exchange between Alice Aldrich, the frustrated mother, and her eternally 16-year-old adolescent son, Henry, began the popular program remembered by listeners.
	Henry Aldrich was originally created by Clifford Goldsmith and adapted from his Broadway play, What a Life!   The play was watched by Rudy Vallee in 1938.  He contacted Goldsmith and soon the play's original cast appeared in a series of skits on his program.  Goldsmith and the skits were noticed by Ted Collins, who was connected with The Kate Smith Hour, and hired away.  The Aldrich Family went with Goldsmith and appeared on her program for 40 weeks.  When Jack Benny took his summer vacation, The Aldrich Family began a limited engagement on NBC on Sunday nights beginning 2 July 1939.
	The program was a solid hit and bought by Jell-O.  It was moved onto the Blue Network on Tuesdays and opened the regular run on 17 October, 1939.  In 1940, the program moved to Thursdays on NBC where it soon rated in the top ten programs on radio..
	The Jell-O jingle sung by the cast was almost as famous as the opening hallmark cracking voice of Henry:

		Oh, the big red letters stand for the Jell-O family;
		Oh, the big red letters stand for the Jell-O family;
		That's Jell-O!
		Yum-yum-yum!
		Jell-O Pudding!
		Yum-yum-yum!
		Jell-O Tap-i-oca pudding.  Yes sir-eee!

		... and now for the Aldrich Family ...

	Each week the angst of adolescence was routinely compounded in situations that would invariably move from bad to worse to ridiculously complicated.  Trials and tribulations drawn from the problems of teenage love and girls in general, the ongoing confusion between the generations, or a crisis that evolved out of what would be for anyone else a routine event served as the plots for many of the half-hour episodes.
	The cast of The Aldrich Family had one of the highest turnover rates in radio.  The original Broadway cast included Ezra Stone as Henry, who brought the role to radio.  By 1939, when the regular run began, House Jameson played Sam Aldrich, Henry's father and a lawyer.  Katharine Raht played the ever-patient mother of Henry, Alice Aldrich.  Ann Lincoln played his sister, Mary.  Jackie Kelk, who would have the longest tenure of any cast member on this show, played Henry's companion in mischief, Homer Brown.  John Dunning cited from the radio magazine, Tune In, that they reported that the show had gone through "five fathers, four mothers, at least a dozen Marys, and two Henrys."  By the time the show ended 5 actors had played the part of Henry Aldrich - Ezra Stone was replaced by his understudy, Norman Tokar, in 1942.  Tokar was called to active duty in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1942, and replaced by Dickie Jones.  By 1945, Stone, Tokar, and Jones were all in the Army and Raymond Ives took over as Henry Aldrich.  Ezra Stone resumed the role in October, 1945, and played the still 16-year- old Henry until the show went off the air on 19 April 1953.