The Passing Parade, also known as John Nesbitt's Passing Parade, was an American radio series created, written and narrated by John Nesbitt. It was adapted into an Oscar-winning series of MGM short subjects. In both formats, the series usually focused on strange-but-true historical events, both obscure and famous, as well as on historical figures such as Catherine de' Medici and Nostradamus.
The radio series was developed as an offshoot of Headlines of the Past, an earlier program that John Nesbitt had produced. The show was launched on the NBC network on February 1, 1937, running intermittently until 1951 over three different networks and in syndication. Nesbitt's inspiration was a trunk inherited from his father that contained news clippings of odd stories from around the world. He utilized a research staff of 14 people to verify the details of his stories, but wrote the final scripts himself, often within an hour of airtime. The stories were usually presented without sound effects or music.[1] The show was also heard as a segment on the John Charles Thomas radio program, upon which Nesbitt served as narrator, from 1943 to 1946.[2]
Billboard wrote: "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."[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." More than 1,500 three-minute episodes were broadcast.[4]
A series of Passing Parade one-reel short subjects were produced for MGM from 1938 to 1949.[5] Most of the films feature the slow movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 as the opening theme music. The films' directors included Fred Zinnemann and Jacques Tourneur.
The films were reedited for television syndication by MGM in the early 1960s. The shorts in their original form were eventually re-aired on Turner Classic Movies. The films episodes may also be found as DVD extras accompanying some MGM films.
| Year | Title | Subject matter | Cast | Home video availability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Passing Parade | Margaret Bert | ||||
| The Face Behind the Mask | The Man in the Iron Mask | Leonard Penn, directed by Jacques Tourneur | |||
| The Story of Alfred Nobel | Alfred Nobel | Paul Guilfoyle | |||
| Flag of Mercy | Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross | Sara Haden | |||
| Yankee Doodle Goes to Town | |||||
| The Story that Couldn't be Printed | John Peter Zenger | Victor Kilian | |||
| One Against the World | Jonathan Hale | ||||
| The Hidden Master | Common luck | Peter Cushing, Emmett Vogan and Louis Jean Heydt | |||
| A Way in the Wilderness | Joseph Goldberger's research on pellagra | Shepperd Strudwick | |||
| Trifles of Importance | Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Robert Taylor, Myrna Loy, Mickey Rooney and Franklin D. Roosevelt | ||||
| Utopia of Death | |||||
| Dreams | |||||
| American Spoken Here | American slang | John Harmon, Barbara Bedford and Ray Teal | |||
| Willie and the Mouse | |||||
| This is the Bowery | Manhattan, the Bowery | ||||
| Of Pups and Puzzles | |||||
| Strange Testament | Edward Ashley and Ava Gardner | ||||
| We Do It Because— | Ava Gardner, Dorothy Morris and Mark Daniels | Reunion in France (DVD) | |||
| The Woman in the House | Ann Richards | ||||
| The Incredible Stranger | Paul Guilfoyle, Dorothy Vaughan and Walter Baldwin | ||||
| The Magic Alphabet | Christiaan Eijkman's discovery of vitamins | Horace McNally | Great Day in the Morning (DVD) | ||
| Famous Boners | Three people who caused or were victims of errors | Edward McWade, Ian Wolfe, Dave O'Brien, Joe Yule, and Margaret Bert | |||
| The Film that Was Lost | Film preservation | ||||
| Madero of Mexico | Francisco I. Madero | Paul Guilfoyle and John Picorri | |||
| Who's Superstitious? | Common superstitions | Don Taylor, Ernie Alexander, Fred Toones and Margaret Bert | |||
| That's Why I Left You | Jacqueline White and James Warren | ||||
| Forgotten Treasure | Film preservation | ||||
| Storm | |||||
| To My Unborn Son | Steven Geray | ||||
| Return from Nowhere | Don DeFore | ||||
| A Lady Fights Back | SS Normandie | Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (DVD) | |||
| The Seesaw and the Shoes | Rene Laennec's invention of the stethoscope; Charles Goodyear's invention of vulcanized rubber | ||||
| The Great American Mug | History of the barber shop | Thrill of a Romance (DVD) | |||
| Stairway to Light | Philippe Pinel | Wolfgang Zilzer and Gene Roth; won an Oscar for Best One-Reel Short Subject | The Picture of Dorian Gray (DVD) | ||
| People on Paper | Comic strips | 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 (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), 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) | |||
| Golden Hunch | |||||
| Magic on a Stick | John Walker's invention of the friction match | Paul Langton and Jacqueline White | |||
| Our Old Car | Jacqueline White | ||||
| A Really Important Person | Dean Stockwell, Connie Gilchrist, Clancy Cooper and Chick York | Song of the Thin Man (DVD) | |||
| Tennis in Rhythm | |||||
| Goodbye, Miss Turlock | Nana Bryant
| Fiesta (DVD) | |||
| My Old Town | |||||
| Souvenirs of Death | The voice of the Mauser pistol | Command Decision (DVD) | |||
| The Fabulous Fraud | Anton Mesmer and hypnotism | John Baragrey, Phyllis Morris, Marcia Mae Jones and Morris Ankrum | |||
| Annie Was a Wonder | Kathleen Freeman, Howard J. Negley, Ruth Lee and Hugo-Sven Borg | The Barkleys of Broadway (DVD) | |||
| Mr. Whitney Had a Notion | Eli Whitney and interchangeable parts | Lloyd Bridges | On the Town (Blu-ray) | ||
| City of Children | Mooseheart, Illinois |