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Pepper Young's Family
Other names	Red Adams; Red Davis; Forever Young
Genre	Daytime serial drama
Running time	15/30 minutes
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
Home station	NBC
Starring	Burgess Meredith; Marion Barney
Announcer	Martin Block
Created by	Elaine Sterne Carrington
Written by	Elaine Sterne Carrington
Directed by	Edwin Wolfe
Original release	1932 –; 1959
Audio format	Mono
Opening theme	"Au Matin"
Sponsored by	Beech-Nut Gum, Camay

Pepper Young's Family is a daytime drama series, with various format and title changes during its long run from 1932 to 1959. It was created and written by short story author and playwright Elaine Sterne Carrington.

History

With Burgess Meredith in the title role, the program began as Red Adams, about high school athlete Red Adams, his family, and his friends. The 30-minute series was broadcast on the Blue Network, airing on Sunday nights at 10:30pm. When Beech-Nut Gum signed as a sponsor, they wanted no mention of their competition, Adams gum, so the title changed to Red Davis, a 15-minute series heard three times a week from 1933 to 1935. The series was again retitled, and the 15-minute Forever Young was heard on NBC weekdays at 3pm from January 13 to June 26, 1936. Three days later, on June 29, it became Pepper Young's Family, continuing on NBC for the next 23 years with Procter & Gamble's Camay as the sponsor.

Meredith was replaced by Curtis Arnall in 1934, who played the title role through 1937 when Lawson Zerbe took over. Next Mason Adams assumed Pepper's persona in 1945 and continued to portray him through the final episode in 1959, more than half of the program's run.

In the storyline, high school athlete Larry "Pepper" Young and his sister Peggy (Elizabeth Wragge)^[1] lived in the small town of Elmwood where their father, Sam Young (Jack Roseleigh, Bill Adams, Thomas Chalmers) ran a manufacturing company. Pepper's girl friend was Linda Benton (Eunice Howard), and his buddy was Nick Havens (John Kane). Leaving school, Pepper took a job as a reporter with the local Free Press. When Pepper and Linda (played by Margaret Draper) married, they had a child, Button. Sam Young became Elmwood's mayor. Oil was discovered on the farm where Pepper and Linda lived, but a fire at the oil well spread, burning down much of the town.

Others in the cast were Grace Albert, Marion Barney (as Pepper's mother), Alan Bunce, Michael Fitzmaurice, Stacy Harris, Claire Howard, Madge Kennedy, Greta Kvalden, Cecil Roy, Laddie Seaman, Jean Sothern, Arthur Vinton, Edwin Wolfe (who also directed some shows).

Announcers included Martin Block, Alan Kent and Richard Stark. The opening piano theme was Au Matin.

Carrington continued to script the program until her death in 1958. She also wrote scripts for two other daytime dramas, When a Girl Marries and Rosemary.

In 1964, NANA Radio began production of newly written episodes of Pepper Young's Family.^[2] At least 88 of these revival episodes are in circulation today.

In 1948, the United Council of Church Women awarded the program a National Family Week radio citation, which the show had also won in the previous year.^[3]

Comic strip adaptation

Bernard Krigstein adapted the radio series into a comic strip in 1950, but his work never found a publisher.^[4]

References

^ "What Do You Want To Know?" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 14 (5): 63. September 1940. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
^ Inc, Nielsen Business Media (Jan 25, 1964). "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved Apr 28, 2019 – via Google Books. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
^ McHatton, Martha (May 10, 1948). "Indianapolis on the Air". The Indianapolis News. p. 25. Retrieved February 9, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Potrzebie". Retrieved Apr 28, 2019.