McBride, Mary Margaret (1899–1976)

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McBride, Mary Margaret (1899–1976)

American journalist and writer who was one of the most popular radio hosts of the first half of the 20th century . Name variations: (early radio name) Martha Deane. Born on November 16, 1899, in Paris, Missouri; died in West Shokun, New York, on April 7, 1976; daughter of Thomas Walker McBride (a farmer) and Elizabeth (Craig) McBride; University of Missouri, B.A., 1919.

Selected writings:

(with Paul Whiteman) Jazz (1926); (with Alexander Williams) Charm: A Book about It and Those Who Have It, For Those Who Want It (1927); (with Helen Josephy) Paris Is a Woman's Town (1929); (with Josephy) London Is a Man's Town (1930); The Story of Dwight Morrow (1930); (with Josephy) New York Is Everybody's Town (1931); (with Josephy) Beer and Skittles: A Friendly Modern Guide to Germany (1932); The Life Story of Constance Bennett (1932); Here's Martha Deane (1936); Tune In for Elizabeth: Career Story of an Interviewer (1945); How Dear to My Heart (autobiography, 1940); A Long Way from Missouri (autobiography, 1959); Out of the Air (autobiography, 1960).

Awards and honors:

Medal for outstanding journalism from the University of Missouri; medal from the Woman's National Exposition of Arts and Industries (1936); Haiti's National Order of Honor and Merit; special medal of honor from the city of Vienna; special recognition from the Virgin Islands; One World Award (1950).

Mary Margaret McBride, who was a fixture on American radio networks for two decades and whose personality-driven, nationally broadcast radio program was heard by an estimated six million listeners daily at the height of her career, was born in Paris, Missouri, in 1899, only two years before the birth of radio itself via Guglielmo Marconi's famous transatlantic wireless communication. She moved frequently as a child, partly as a result of her farmer father's restlessness. Encouraged by her book-loving grandfathers to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, McBride put herself through the University of Missouri by working on the school paper—including typesetting duties—and babysitting for faculty families, earning a journalism degree in 1919. For a time after graduation she worked in Washington, D.C., and was then offered a job as a reporter for the Cleveland Press through a college classmate, Pauline Pfeiffer (who would later marry Ernest Hemingway). McBride dreamed of moving to New York City, however, and obtained a publicity job with the Interchurch World Movement there around 1920. Living in Greenwich Village, she worked for a few years at the New York Evening Mail, where she was only the second female writer to be hired. She covered fires and tragic cases involving orphaned children and the indigent, common assignments for women reporters, but fought to get the hard-news assignments.

McBride left the Mail around 1924 to begin freelancing. She wrote articles for the Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, and other popular periodicals, and began to travel. After writing two books, Jazz with Paul Whiteman (1926) and Charm: A Book about It and Those Who Have It, For Those Who Want It with Alexander Williams (1927), McBride began writing light-hearted travel guides with Helen Josephy . These included Paris Is a Woman's Town, London Is a Man's Town, New York Is Everybody's Town, and Beer and Skittles: A Friendly Modern Guide to Germany, all published between 1929 and 1932. McBride suffered financial hardship as a result of the Great Depression in the early 1930s (she was also supporting her parents back in Missouri by this point), and needed money when the magazine market shrank. In 1934, she went to an audition at a New York radio station, WOR, and to her surprise was offered the job as host of a newly

created radio program aimed at women. She began as "Martha Deane," a grandmother who gave housekeeping hints and talked about her grandchildren, but after just a few weeks on the air misspoke while in the middle of an anecdote about a nonexistent grandchild; she then confessed that she was not even married. She told listeners to write to the station if they thought she should stay, and they did.

Over the next few years, McBride's show evolved from advice-giving and recipes to more sophisticated topics, especially when the CBS Radio Network hired her in 1937 and gave her a show under own name. She switched to NBC from 1941 until 1950, when she jumped to ABC. Extremely popular, McBride interviewed noted celebrities of the day, including Queen Elizabeth II, Eleanor Roosevelt , and President Harry S. Truman, broadcast from remote locations, and took her listeners on a great many adventures. Much of her show was ad-libbed, a risky practice in the days of live radio. Known as a convincing spokesperson for a range of products (she had a waiting list of sponsors), McBride was adamant about not endorsing goods that she had not personally tested, and so gave quite convincing testimonials.

Called "the First Lady of Radio," McBride was such a success that her anniversary broadcasts were attended by huge audiences: the 10th, held in Madison Square Garden, attracted 25,000, and the 15th had to be held in Yankee Stadium to accommodate a crowd of 40,000. She was once named one of the five most important women in America (along with Sister Elizabeth Kenny, Emily Post, Dorothy Thompson , and Eleanor Roosevelt). McBride retired from a six-day-a-week schedule in 1954 after the death of her longtime confidant and business manager, Stella Karn . A friend since their days together at the Interchurch World Movement, Karn figures prominently in many of the adventures that McBride chronicled in one of her autobiographies, A Long Way from Missouri (1959). Mary Margaret McBride also wrote two other volumes of memoirs, How Dear to My Heart (1940) and Out of the Air (1960). She spent her remaining years in a renovated Hudson Valley barn, making the occasional radio or television appearance, and died in April 1976.