''Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt'' is an American

old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

situation comedy A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

. It was broadcast on the

Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Com ...

from September 28, 1941, until January 25, 1942, and on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

from February 13, 1942, until April 13, 1942.

Format

''Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt'' was based on the play '' What Price Glory?'' (1924) by

Laurence Stallings Laurence Tucker Stallings (November 25, 1894 – February 28, 1968) was an American playwright, screenwriter, lyricist, literary critic, journalist, novelist, and photographer. Best known for his collaboration with Maxwell Anderson on the 1924 pl ...

and

Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Background Anderson was born on December 15, 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to ...

. The title characters were

Marines Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (ref ...

who often squabbled over women. Flagg was "portrayed as a dense and gullible officer", which resulted in protests from officials of the U. S. Marine Corps. Writers revised the show, replacing Quirt with a new character, Sergeant Bliss. The series ended six weeks after that change. A spokesman for NBC said, "changing conditions in the war emergency have made it impossible to bring the program within the limits of NBC program policies", resulting in the cancellation. When the cancellation was announced, sponsors said that the program would be revived after the end of the war.

Personnel

Initially,

Victor McLaglen Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was a British boxer-turned-Hollywood actor.Obituary '' Variety'', 11 November 1959, page 79. He was known as a character actor, particularly in Westerns, and made s ...

portrayed Flagg.

Edmund Lowe Edmund Dantes Lowe (March 3, 1890 – April 21, 1971) was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film. Biography Lowe was born in San Jose, California. His father was a local judge. His childhood home was a ...

played Quirt, as they had in the film version of ''What Price Glory?''

William Gargan William Dennis Gargan (July 17, 1905February 17, 1979) was an American film, television and radio actor. He was the 5th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1967, and in 1941, was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

began playing Flagg early in 1942. Fred Shields portrayed Bliss.

Cliff Arquette Clifford Charles Arquette (December 27, 1905 ⁠– September 23, 1974) was an American actor and comedian. Famous for his persona Charley Weaver, played on numerous television shows. Early life and career Cliff Arquette was born on Decemb ...

played Ol' Doc. Mel Williamson was the program's producer, and

John P. Medbury John P. Medbury (died 29 June 1947) was a humorist who wrote for newspapers and film, and did narration for several films. His most notable newspaper contribution was a regular series for the '' New York Journal'' called ''Mutter and Muble''. A 1 ...

was the writer.

Schedule and sponsors

From September 28, 1941, until January 25, 1942, ''Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt'' was broadcast on the Blue Network at 7:30 on Sundays, sponsored by

Mennen Mennen is a brand owned in most parts of the world by the Colgate-Palmolive Company. Its most notable product, Mennen Speed Stick, with its fougère perfume and green wide stick, was the US market leader among deodorants and antiperspirants for ...

toiletries. From February 13, 1942, until April 3, 1942, it was on NBC at 10 on Fridays, sponsored by

Brown & Williamson Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation was a U.S. tobacco company and a subsidiary of multinational British American Tobacco that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhan ...

tobacco. Episodes of the program were recorded for rebroadcast over four radio stations in Alaska so that Army and Navy personnel there could hear them. The rebroadcasts were done in response to a request by the Morale Branch of the War Department.

Reception

John K. Hutchens, writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', contrasted the title characters in this program with their counterparts in ''What Price Glory?''. He described their mellowing "into a pair of jolly pranksters to whom war is a pretty happy-go-lucky proposition". Previously, he explained, "they were cursing war as a brutal if necessary business and now it is a lively escapade full of jokes". He added, "Even if the jokes were funny they would still smack of laughter earned under dubious pretenses".

References

{{Authority control 1940s American radio programs 1941 radio programme debuts 1942 radio programme endings American comedy radio programs NBC radio programs