Barriers between Entertainment and Politics
During the Great Depression, radio networks tried to limit political satire to maintain the appearance of nonpartisanship and to prevent disparagement of the government. During the 1933 banking crisis, NBC vice president John F. Royal (1886-1978) prohibited comedy “that would tend to lessen public faith.” In 1936, an election year, Royal instructed comedians to refrain from political humor after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the Agricultural Adjustment Act, a key piece of New Deal legislation. By 1938, however, NBC seemed on the verge of relaxing their regulations, as the network’s continuity acceptance division memo demonstrates. Later that year, Bob Hope took advantage of the shift and opened his weekly NBC show with topically-oriented monologs.
During the Great Depression, radio networks tried to limit political satire to maintain the appearance of nonpartisanship and to prevent disparagement of the government. During the 1933 banking crisis, NBC vice president John F. Royal (1886–1978) prohibited comedy “that would tend to lessen public faith.” In 1936, an election year, Royal instructed comedians to refrain from political humor after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the Agricultural Adjustment Act, a key piece of New Deal legislation. By 1938, however, NBC seemed on the verge of relaxing their regulations, as the network’s continuity acceptance division memo demonstrates. Later that year, Bob Hope took advantage of the shift and opened his weekly NBC show with topically-oriented monologs.