With the recent actions around Roe v. Wade, I thought it might be interesting to look at the portrayal of women in OTR. Not to get political, but to reflect on history. Maybe to put modern decisions into perspective with what came before. At least from my observations immersing myself in the shows of the era.
Why I love OTR is because it’s a window into the world of the 1930s-1950s. And through that window, a modern audience can see just how women were portrayed back then. I have listened to literally thousands of hours of these shows. And one of the main reasons I put Madison in there is to be the perfect foil for the sexism of the time. Certainly a favorite troupe of these male noir writers was the ditzy assistant. Suzy in Box 13 is an extreme version of this. She’s a ding-bat who always uses the wrong words (even though she’s convinced she’s used the correct ones) and Dan Holiday must reluctantly put up with his well meaning secretary. While it makes for fun comedic relief, and I certainly found her fun to write in the adaptation, sadly, Suzy just continues the socially acceptable portrayal as women being dumb. If you caught our episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade from Year One, Madison stepped in for Sam’s assistant, Effie. Effie was very much like Suzy. You might have noticed how Madison and Sam absolutely do NOT get along. That original story followed Effie as her mother (in our story, Madison’s grandmother) is kidnapped by gangsters. Sam is outright mean to Effie, even in her worry and grief. So Madison absolutely did not let him get away with that.
But let’s talk about some of the more subtle ways women were secondary citizens in OTR. Today there is a lot of talk about “representation” in modern programming. It might not be obvious when listening, but if you keep an ear out, you may notice all of the police officers, business owners, business executives, doctors, etc., etc., are all played by men. Women appear as nurses, secretaries, waitresses, wives/mothers… roles where they serve men. I keep these roles cast this way firstly, because it is true to the era, but secondly, so Madison can be on hand to strike back at any male ego. I not only think about how very few Candy Matson: YUkon 2-8209 shows there were (lead female detective) or The Adventures of the Thin Man (smart wife, an equal partner to her detective husband) but how hard it was for the women behind the scenes. What great roles were available to women? What about the female writers? I mention in our first installment of The New Adventures Sherlock Holmes that the entire series was originally written by one women who was forced out by men who wanted less Sherlock intrigue, and more generic action to the stories.
So why do I still love and listen to OTR when clearly women were, more often than not, given a raw deal? I have always believed we can learn from the past. If we jump to “cancel” everything that doesn’t meet our modern standards, we can’t see how far we’ve come and how long it took us to get to where we are. Roe v. Wade is definitely a step backwards. But I’ve heard OTR that has fully railed against women wearing pants! “We mistook her for a man because she was wearing trousers”- all the men, even our hero, agreed this woman was in the wrong for dressing inappropriately. So even though some victories of the past may have been small, they were still victories. And with small victories, we can build towards bigger and better ones.
