Fibber and Molly Still Real Folks

The Milwaukee Journal – May 19, 1940

Fibber and Molly Still Real Folks

By Bill Porter

JIM and Marian Jordan (better known to their fans as Fibber McGee and Molly) are pretty disturbed about some untrue stories being printed about them.

“Most of the stories lead you to believe that we were never successful until we became Fibber McGee and Molly,” said Jim Jordan, “and you’d think that $10 a week was the most we made on radio before we hit the big dough. The truth is a much better story. If you’ll print it we’ll tell it to you.”

I said, “Okay, I’ll print it, Mr. Jordan” And he said, “Mr. Jordan is my dad. I’m Jim.”

The Jordans, prosperous now whatever  their financial condition before, live today in what you might call an estate, out Encino way.

The place is surrounded by a rose-covered, brick wall. Within the walls are flower gardens, lawns, a swimming pool where Mrs. Jordan takes swimming lessons, a shop where Jim makes furniture, a small orange grove with a brook.

“WE FIRST met while singing in the choir in Peoria, III. I was 18 and Marian was 17,” said Jim. “At that time she was teaching piano and I was playing semipro ball and learning to sing.

“We were married three years later in 1918. People seem to believe that we’ve lived all our lives in apartments, but we’ve had a home ever since we’ve been married. My dad gave us $1,000 for a wedding present and we socked it right in on a home. The one we have now makes the fourth one we’ve owned.

“We’ve always made good money,” said Jim. “Why, it has just been in the past two years as Fibber McGee and Molly that we’ve earned as much money as we made in 1922. We owned the Metropolitan Entertainers and Swiss Bell Ringer, a concert company, and that year we made $25,000 net profit.”

Mrs. Jordan chimed in: “Sure and we’ve still got the bells out in the garage. Come on out and we’ll show them to you.” Marian and Jim were concert singers then and Marian played piano and organ in addition to the Swiss bells.

“WE GAVE up concert work because we thought there was a future in radio,” said Jim, “and it’s true we made $10 a week on our first radio show. We spent all the money we had saved just living at that time, and I even sold washing machines, sewing machines and vacuum cleaners to help the budget.

“Finally we went into vaudeville for two years because radio wasn’t paying off. We made from $750 to $1,000 a week in vaudeville as a harmony team and we made that much in radio when we went back to it.

“When we started back on radio we had a two hour variety show. We sang and played piano and organ and told stories, all under different names and with different voices.”

“As for Fibber McGee and Molly being new characters,” Mrs. Jordan said, “we’ve been doing those same characters for years in a series called ‘Smackouts!’ Jim was the grocer who was always smack out of everything.”

Fibber McGee and Molly have made one motion picture. “This Way Please.” “We want to make another picture,” said Jim Jordan, “And we’re dickering. But nothing has been set. If we do make one, we don’t want it to be a million dollar epic, but a small, inexpensive picture. We have no ambition to be motion picture actors.”