THE MILKWAUKEE JOURNAL—SCREEN and RADIO
Sunday, December 30, 1945
The McGees Are Just Folks
By Carlton Cheney
ON A RECENT trip to New York, Jim Jordan, better known as
Fibber McGee, of Fibber and Molly, was standing in the main corridor of the NBC
studios when a little crowd of sightseers approached. Led by a uniformed guide,
they nore down on Jordan, elbowed him out of the way and continued their hunt
for glimpses of stars.
That no one paid him the least attention did not surprise
Fibber’s other self. Even after some eight years of life in Hollywood, where
stars rarely pass unrecognized, Jim and Marion Jordan, though tops among radio
teams, can usually walk down a crowded Vine st. without being mobbed by
autograph hunters.
The fact that they remain relatively inconspicuous once they
get away from the microphones does not disturb or displease the Jordans. Plain
folk from country and small town, the one the son of a farmer, the other the
daughter of a coal miner, they make no pretense of radiating glamor and will
probably never get used to the idea that they are, in any sense, celebrities.
In a Hollywood much given to exhibitionism and the keenest of rivalry for
public attention, they seem strangely out of place.
They Don’t Go for Hollywood’s Glitter
In truth, Fibber and Molly are rarely so comfortable as when
they get away from Hollywood’s bright lights, tinsel glitter and psuedo-sophistication
and retrent to the rustic simplicity of their little two and one-half acre
ranch in the San Fernando valley, or better still, to the remoteness of their
cattle ranch not far from Bakersfield in the San Joaquin. There they feel they
are surrounded by their kind of people, by neighbors who speak their language.
“I like Bakersfield,” remarked Jim recently “That’s my kind
of town You walk down the street, and people stop to ask about your cattle or
inquire how the work is going on the new well. Everyone’s so friendly and
neighborly.”
In their little one story, four room dwelling on the cattle
ranch, the Jordans spent most of the weeks they were off the sir in summer.
“At our place in the San Fernando,” said Marion, “we have
eight rooms. With help so hard to get nowadays, when we’re there I’ve had to do
most of the housework myself. Up on the cattle ranch, I can take care of those
four rooms in a breeze.”
As to the cattle ranch, Marion would have it known that it
is no mere hobby. On the sprending acres they raise fine black I’ole Angus
stock and are currently enlarging the herd from 200 to 250 head.
“Jim is very much at home up there,” she said. “You know, he
was raised on a farm. But don’t get the idea that he likes to get out and pitch
hay. Some of the other ranchers go in for raising their own feed, but we don’t.
Jim says he pitchforked enough hay and carried enough water to the farm hands
as a boy to last him the rest of his life. He’s interested now in managing
things, being the businessman. And he’s a good businessman too.”
Besides the cattle project, the Jordans operate a nursery on
12 San Fernando valley acres, where they specialize in the raising of
Cinerarias. Their entry of these flowers in the Pasadena flower show last spring
won first prize. From the seed of this stock they expect to raise 3,000 flats
of Cineraria plants.
These agricultural and horticultural activities, however,
are side lines. Prime interest of both the Jordans is their weekly air show on
NBC. Having reached the peak as a radio team after many years of discouragement
and many battles with adversity, they seem to feel a deep responsibility to
their job. Each of the Jordans leans heavily upon each other’s judgment.
Both Jordans derived great satisfaction from their recent
trip to Toronto. Ont. and New York. They had not been in New York since their
first broadcast as Fibber McGee and Molly 10 years ago when Jim overhead one of
the NBC pages remark to some of his co-workers the day after that broadcast.
“Did you listen to that new show last night?” inquired the
young man, not recognizing Jordan standing near by. “Boy, is that a stinker!
Bet it won’t last long”
The Jordans, Fibber McGee and Molly, reading a script for
their Tuesday night show (8:30 p. m., WTMJ-NBC)
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