TEX AND JINX Radio & Television BROADCAST HISTORY:
April 22, 1946- February 27, 1959.
WEAF (WNBC, WRCA), New York weekdays at 8:30 A.M. until 1954; at 1:00pm,1954-1955; then at 6:30 and 10:35pm until July 31, 1958, moving briefly to WOR, broadcasting at 2:15pm.
In addition to the Kollmars (Dorothy Kilgallen and husband Richard Kollmar) and the Fitzgeralds (Pegeen and husband Ed Fitzgerald), another well-recognized New York couple, newlyweds Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg, added their own bread-and-bacon banter to the local airwaves between 1946 and 1959. Their gabfest, initially Hi Jinx but later revised to Tex and Jinx, was beamed over WEAF which was subsequently re-lettered WNBC and later WRCA. In limited doses, the flagship outlet of the National Broadcasting Company transmitted "Meet Tex" and Jinx to the whole country during 1947 and 1948.
Tex and Jinx devoted most of their airtime to lofty and noble concepts, visitors and sidebars. Tex and Jinx [on WEAF-WNBC-WRCA] were interviewing Bernard Baruch, Margaret Truman, or Ethel Waters…. McCrary built the show on the assumption that the early morning audience was not stupid, as programmers generally assumed; that people in general had fresher minds and were more open to serious topics at the beginning of the day.”
Their joint radio venture began in April 1946 just 10 months following their nuptials (June 10, 1945). Launched as a breakfast feature, the series later shifted to afternoons and finally into the evening hours before departing the air a dozen years afterward. They were branded by one journalist “Mr. Brains and Mrs. Beauty.”
In early 1947 NBC put them on its television network as a portion of a Sunday evening quarter-hour dubbed Bristol-Myers Tele-Varieties. The McCrary's were naturals for TV,” wrote a reviewer, with their combination of friendly chatter, interviews, and features. That summer Tex McCrary and & Jinx Falkenburg were awarded an exclusive Sunday night half-hour format under the appellation "At Home with Tex and Jinx." A decade later, during the 1957-58 season, the duo hosted a daytime NBC-TV showcase, "The Tex and Jinx Show."
When hepatitis sidetracked Falkenburg in 1958 from their broadcast commitments, McCrary carried on solo for a brief period of time on their radio.
In the 1980s the couple separated, remaining on genial terms. McCrary died in New York on July 29, 2003 and Falkenburg expired just 29 days later in the same city, on August 27, 2003.
NOTE:
The scores of TEX AND JINX SHOWS archived by Archival Television Audio, Inc. were originally obtained as original 16" Electronic Discs from Barry Farber, producer of the show (1957-1959), in 1960 after he had begun his own career in front of the mike at WINS Radio. These discs were subsequently transferred to 1/4" reel to reel tape, and then disposed. These broadcasts are rare and represent the largest known collection of TEX AND JINX extant broadcasts in the world.
Today's broadcast focuses on newly appointed US secretary of state, Dean Acheson, MAN OF THE WEEK... his life and accomplishments and his contribution to the formulation of The Truman Doctrine (An American foreign policy that pledges American support for democracies against authoritarian threats).
During this profile salute to Dean Acheson by Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenberg who praise him as a man of peace and wisdom, we hear Acheson, in his own words, his philosophy and diplomacy ideas.
Also, past relevant commentary is heard from Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, and Cordell Hall.
A very rare early Tex & Jinx radio broadcast.
NOTE:
In 2001 Phil Gries attempted numerous times to contact Tex & Jinx separately. Here is a response from Tex's son John that I felt was very revealing.
9/10/2001
Dear Phil,
[Letter in response to receiving a requested audio air check by Jinx Falkenburg ("Tex & Jinx" live radio broadcast) with guests Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando and Sid Caesar]
"Thank you again for the cassette. As I mentioned on the phone, my mother, Jinx (Falkenburg), has always said that that interview with Marilyn (Monroe) - Dec. 12, 1955 - was her most difficult interview ever."
Sincerely,
John McCrary
