We listened to the Radio
- lisaluger
- Feb 10, 2021
- 12 min read
Updated: Jul 16, 2023
(De/UK)
Radio and Television in the 50s and 60s.
When I was a child, in the 50s, we didn’t have a television. We listened to the radio. The radio was on all day long. We loved all kinds of music, be it pop songs, Bavarian folk music, operettas or classical music. We knew most of the song lyrics by heart and sang or hummed along if we didn’t know the words. Music and news, programmes for women, children and the whole family was catered for. For the men, there was sports, especially football. We looked forward to certain programmes and didn’t want to miss them.
Radio plays instead of films
We also liked to listen to radio plays. On Saturdays, my mother and my three siblings participated in the life of the “Brandl Family” (one of our mother’s favourite programmes), in which mother Walburga Brandl, spoken by the famous actress Liesl Karlstadt, tried to solve everyday problems of a German family in the 1950s. The daughter’s preparation for the housekeeping exam, the son’s school problems, financial decisions and the like provided weekly dramatic twists played out in family events.
This weekly series on women’s radio enjoyed great popularity because “Mother Brandl” and her family were confronted with the same everyday problems as the listeners. Besides, Liesl Karlstadt had been a well-known comedienne alongside Karl Valentin. In this, her last role, she changed from comedienne to a good-hearted woman with a cheeky mouth – a humorous identification figure that the listeners could identify with. Her problem-solving strategies were pragmatic and in keeping with the spirit of the times. She was asked for advice in numerous letters by fans. My mother, of course, never did write to her.
Our friend the Pumuckl
Much more than the Brandl family, we children loved the adventures of Pumuckl (voiced by Hans Clarin), a goblin who got stuck on the glue pot in Master Eder’s workshop and, according to the goblin law, had to show himself to the master carpenter and live with him. In 1962, the radio play series based on the book by Ellis Kraut started on Bavarian Radio. Everyone loved this weird goblin. Why did they love him? He often did what was forbidden. He disobeyed Master Eder. He often played crude jokes and sometimes caused damage. He tricked and demanded. Modesty was not his thing. We children would have been in big trouble if we had shown even a fraction of his character traits. His punishment was mild, his insight reluctant. It certainly did us kids good to hear this little imp defy the lavish rules and prohibitions for children of the 50s and 60s, which demanded good behaviour and obedience. We had a lot of fun with him and admired him.
Pumuckl freed us for a short while from the pressure of having to be too conformist and well-behaved. Later generations, the children who watched TV, know the goblin from 1982 onwards as a red-haired, colourfully dressed tiny goblin with a little belly. My image of Pumuckl did not correspond in the least to the computer-generated version of this red-haired Pumuckl from the TV series. I imagined Pumuckl as a little blond boy with short trousers and braces – and interestingly, in black and white. It’s quite amazing that this impish character made such an impression on children over the generations.
Excitement for the whole family
Once a month on Sunday evenings, the whole family gathered to follow “Kommissar Leitner” on Radio Klagenfurt as he solved cases in the crime quiz ‘Who is the culprit?’ This quiz was structured in such a way that while the crime was being described, small clues were laid that could help attentive listeners to identify the culprit. Listeners could then send their solution to the radio station. The anticipation continued for another two weeks when the solution was finally announced, and the winners amongst the 1000-plus entries received a book prize – a crime novel, of course.
And then there were the adventure stories about the Chicago pickpocket Dickie Dick Dickens. I don’t remember what they were about – I was too little – but I do remember that I found the name Dickie Dick Dickens so fascinating that I kept babbling it to myself during the programme – much to the annoyance of my siblings who were listening intently.
Thinking back, perhaps those early crime radio plays laid the foundation for my continuing passion for crime fiction.
The nice thing about listening to the radio is that you can do something else at the same time. Knitting, handicrafts, building Lego, but also ironing, mending, chopping vegetables or fruit, etc., - all activities in which the mind can wander.
First encounter
The first time I saw a television set was in 1958. I was 5 years old when my siblings and I went with our parents to our neighbours’ house to watch the consecration of Pope John XXIII on television. We and the six neighbouring children sat on the floor, the adults crowded on chairs in the neighbours’ small kitchen. Their black-and-white TV set was small, and a picture could hardly be seen behind all the ‘snow flurries’, and our neighbour had to constantly turn the aerial to try and get a better picture.
However, this did not stop us children from gazing in awe at their TV. So, when the neighbour’s children invited us to stay and watch ‘Fury’ after the consecration of the Pope, we were thrilled. Fury, the loyal but wild black horse; Lassie, the clever Collie dog; and also Flipper, the child-friendly dolphin, had been unknown to us until then. We were delighted and hoped to be invited more often. We would hang around ‘inconspicuously’ near the neighbour’s house just before the broadcasting time, hoping for an invitation, and sometimes we were allowed in.
One thing our mother was really concerned about was us being a nuisance to the neighbouring family. Ideally, we would have spent every afternoon there, without giving it a thought that we might be overstaying our welcome. Why should we? After all, we were quiet and well-behaved and would have gone home for dinner! What more could you want!?
Finally, a device of our own!
Years later, I think it was 1964, my father gave in to our pleas and bought our first television set. It was placed in the dining room, the room where we all spent most of our time, and where we did our homework, read books and played games because it was too cold in our bedrooms, especially in winter. When a film was on in the evening, I often only finished my homework when the film had finished. My parents were often so fascinated by a programme that they completely forgot that their youngest was not yet in bed and was sitting at the table with her notebook and schoolbook spread out in front of her with unfinished homework. Those were the good times.
Mostly, however, my mother sent me to bed. What a pity! During an exciting episode of the crime series “77 Sunset Strip”, with Kookie and Efrem Zimbalist Jr., just when it got to the exciting bit, my mother noticed me and mercilessly sent me to bed. Reluctantly, I made my way to bed. But instead of going to bed, I quietly crept back and peeked through a crack in the door from the kitchen to watch what was happening. And suddenly, the killer’s bloodied hand reached out from under the bed and grabbed the unsuspecting young woman by the leg. I screamed out in horror, betraying my hiding place. Only the thrill of the episode kept my mother from giving me a lecture.
Television had an enormous effect on my imagination and also on my dreams. Years later, I would first look under the bed to make sure no murderer was hiding underneath before I climbed in. Today I have a bed with drawers underneath for storage, so there would be no room for a murderer. This bed is not only practical but also somehow reassuring.
Television programmes help to structure everyday life
During the 1960s, television developed into the most important medium of entertainment and information. Television was clearly structured by programmes and broadcasting times and, as a result, also structured the everyday life of the viewers.
At that time, television was a shared family experience. Together we watched quiz programmes, films and TV series. However, there was no uncontrolled television consumption. In contrast to today, when television is available around the clock, the television programme in the 60s and 70s was limited.
In these days, weekday programmes started around 5 pm and ended between 11 pm and midnight. Before and after those times, there was only a black and white snowy flickering or a graphic test picture. During the weekends, the programmes started earlier and ended later.
Television presenters introduced the programmes so that you knew what it was about. On Saturday evenings, after the drawing of the lottery numbers and the Word on Sunday, a late-night film was shown, but this was not intended for children and young people.
Something for every taste
Children’s and family programmes were shown on Sunday afternoons, such as ‘The Little Rascals’, or series with animals as the title characters, such as ‘Flipper’, ‘Fury’ or ‘Lassie’, adventure films such as ‘Treasure Island’ and children’s films such as Erich Kästner’s ‘Das Doppelte Lottchen’, to name but a few. Late Sunday afternoon, at 5.45 p.m., they showed Bonanza. I could still sing along to the rousing theme song even today. The adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe, among others, formed our image of the culture of the USA and the rough but honourable and good-hearted men of America. In comparison, German films were rather small-minded and conservative.
and
Television programmes tried to offer something for every taste and broadcast a mixture of information, reports, shows, feature films and series. After the Tagesschau (daily news), which provided information on the news of the day from 8 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., entertainment programmes started as they continue to do today. Feature films that were shown were often from the 40s and 50s. The stories were harmless and often humorous. Films like Heinz Rühmann’s ‘Die Drei von der Tankstelle’, for example, had great entertainment value. Actors such as Heinz Rühmann or Heinz Erhard were of the trusting petty-bourgeois, humourous type, loved by German audiences. They were so different from the dashing guys in American westerns or crime thrillers. The good family fathers and their relatives embodied a moral social image of decency, friendship and family cohesion that made their viewers smile with quiet humour. They were anti-heroes, and their films had a certain feel-good character, exactly what German families needed after the war and something completely non-political.
However, the reality of life for the average German post-war family was not represented or shown. As a child, one could believe that there were just such ideal families in the neighbourhood. It just so happened that one’s own was more problematic. In contrast, films like “Lassie” and “Flipper” and all the others were American series that did not depict the reality of life in Germany, but they did have a tremendous influence on us. This world was far more exotic, and the characters were not to be found in our neighbourhoods. What an adventure!
Unattainable idols for girls
One of the TV series most popular with our family was the science fiction series “Raumpatrouille” (Space Patrol) with Dietmar Schönherr as the rebellious Commander MacLane of the super-fast spaceship Orion, who was in constant clash with the security officer Tamara, played by Eva Pflug.
This futuristic series was way ahead of its time. Apart from the computer monstrosities, which today are more reminiscent of old hoovers and hairdryer hoods, and the fascinating videophones, there was another aspect that stood out and had a formative effect on viewers like me. Women like Tamara or Helga were engineers, lieutenants and security officers just like their male counterparts, and met men on an equal level. Eventually, they became role models for us girls of the 60s. However, the spirit of the times still denied us this oxygen for our future.
My family loved criminal series such as “Kobra übernehmen Sie” and “Der Kommissar”. I was especially fascinated by the intelligent and powerful agent Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg) in the English TV series ‘The New Avengers)’. She became an idol for me, and for a long time I wanted to become an agent like her. Unfortunately, at that time, the German police only employed women as traffic wardens who handed out parking tickets, and that was certainly not for me. However, I still have a fondness for detective stories.
Everyday life as a topic of conversation
For a while, we and the whole neighbourhood, in fact, the whole of Germany, waited weekly with bated breath for The Fugitive and hoped that Dr Kimble would not be caught by Police Inspector Gerard and that he would finally be able to find his wife’s one-armed murderer and so prove his innocence.
Television entertainment in those days was limited by having few channels and even fewer programmes and became an experience shared with many others in society. Everyone had seen the same crime thriller the night before, and therefore, it was a topic of conversation the next day.
When the three-part Francis Durbridge crime series ‘Melissa’ aired, the streets of my hometown were deserted. Almost everyone was sitting in front of the TV, not wanting to miss the sequel. After all, there were no streaming services. If you missed a programme, that was it. No chance until maybe 10 years later when it might be aired again.
With the introduction of the Second German Television (ZDF) in 1963, there was more choice of programmes, in addition to the regional programmes and the Austrian channels. But this also brought with it the agony of choice. Since most households at the time had only one television set, if any, there were often disputes about which programme to watch and who in the family had the say in what to watch. Today, this is less of a problem because most families have a choice of devices, for example, iPod, Ipad, tablet, and computer, and because of broadband and streaming reception in all rooms and no need for an ariel. The question of timing has been settled because of the possibility of recording programmes.
Conflict material back then…
In the early days, when television took its central place in family life, it was a frequent source of conflict.
We were mostly unanimous when it came to our preference for thrillers. But for a while, in addition to our opinions, we had something else to consider, which unfortunately weighed heavily.
Our neighbour did not have his own television set. Under the pretext of wanting to play chess with my father, he appeared every evening punctually around 7.30 pm. While the two of them were actually playing, we children were watching TV with our mother, looking forward to a certain programme after the news. So we switched over, which prompted our neighbour to say: “We could perhaps rather watch this and this….”. We cursed inwardly – but the guest is king. And so we watched the programme that the neighbour wanted to watch. Grrr! This went on for several months until the neighbour’s wife got tired of having to do without her husband every evening and relieved us of him by buying a TV set herself. Well done, Mrs Neighbour!
The problem with the choice of programmes disappeared when we children grew older. We developed other interests and our own tastes and no longer wanted to spend our evenings with our parents in front of the TV. We wanted to be with our friends. We discovered cinema and especially new films that suited our times and the challenges of our generation.
… and today
Nowadays, we have a variety of media at our disposal 24 hours a day. Television competes with social media and streaming providers. News can be accessed online at any time from various providers and is no longer the prerogative of public service broadcasters. Television as a source of information and entertainment is becoming less important, and its structure has changed. Programmes can be accessed from the media library at any time of the day or night. To watch all the episodes of a series, you no longer have to wait until the next week, but, if you wanted, binge-watch an entire series via the media library, Amazon Prime or Netflix. Because episodes are and always have been structured in such a way that you are eagerly awaiting the next one, series have a certain addictive potential. You can’t switch it off; you have to keep watching, even if it takes all night.
David’s and my rituals
My husband and I are well aware of this danger. We have devised rules for ourselves because previously, there were barriers due to programming, daily life with work and other activities and distractions getting in the way.
Our television habits have been adjusted because of Covid Lockdown. It is no longer possible to go to the cinema, or theatre or to visit friends, so we stay in and have developed this routine.
The TV is only switched on whilst we have dinner, so we watch the news together. Then we watch a film or documentary, either from the BBC’s media library or from a streaming platform. We watch BBC because all the other channels are overloaded with advertising, which not only annoys us but also makes it easy to lose the tension or thread of the story.
Sometimes it is not easy for the two of us to agree on a film because we have different tastes. It is easier when we have found a series that interests us both equally. Then there are no arguments about the choice for the evenings it takes to watch the series. The pressure to consume and the potential for addiction are less of an issue for us, as my better half falls asleep after two episodes, and I don’t want to watch the series alone. I then watch one of the German-language DVDs that I get from friends or family for my birthday.
But there’s also a trick I use to watch the series a little longer if I do get hooked. I watch one more episode in the evening, and David, who gets up much earlier than I do, watches the same episode in the morning on his computer. And lo and behold, in the evening, we sit peacefully together in front of the TV and are in the same place in the series. So it goes on. (LL)
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