NILA
MACK.
Creator
of Radio Program Called “Let’s Pretend.”
[NOTE:
FAMILY NAME WAS MAC.]
The following article is taken from a
quarterly magazine entitled The Little Balkans Review, Volume 3, No. 3,
published in the spring of 1983. The article was written by Mrs. George (Betty)
Sybrant of Arkansas City, Kansas.
“Let’s pretend that you grew up in
Arkansas City in the early years of this century. You might have played with
the girl next door, pretending on hot summer afternoons that you were
Cinderella or princess Moonbeam.
“Nila Mack, who gained fame as the
writer, producer, director of the award-winning CBS children’s program, ‘Let’s
Pretend,’ spent such a childhood. Her popular radio show was heard on Saturday
mornings from 1934 to 1954 and featured classic stories and fairy tales acted
by children.
“Bonnie Nix was the girl next door who
applauded her friend’s successes and kept pictures and scrapbooks to document
them. This strong friendship endured through separa-tions of time, distance,
and lifestyles. When Nila Mack died in January 1953, her will provided funds to
help care for Bonnie’s handicapped son. Bonnie’s life ended on Christmas day
1981, at age eighty-nine. Just a few days before, she had visited with me about
Nila Mack and shared her treasures of pictures and clippings. Bonnie’s eyes
sparkled as she related events from their childhood and she spoke proudly of
visiting her friend years later at the CBS studios in New York.
“Nila Mack was the only child of Margaret
Bowen Mac and Don Carlos Mac. She was born October 24, 1891, in Arkansas City.
Mr. Mac’s ancestors were McLoughlins when they arrived in the United States
from Scotland. Somewhere along the line, the name was shortened to Mac. I could
find no record of why he was given the Spanish name Don Carlos, but he was
always Carl Mac in Arkansas City. Nila added the K to her name after she
entered show business because she said it was often thought the Mac was a
nickname.
“Carl Mac came to Arkansas City in 1886
as a Santa Fe engineer and is credited with taking the first engine over the
tracks to Guthrie in Indian Territory, April 22, 1889, and the first train to
Perry when the Cherokee Strip was opened for settlement. He also was the
engineer on a train which was held up in June 1892 at Red Rock, about
fifty-five miles south of Arkansas City, by the famed outlaw Dalton brothers.
This incident is described in detail in George Rainey’s book on the Cherokee
Strip. No one was hurt in this fracas, but in October of the same year the
Daltons were shot to death in a bank robbery in Coffeyville, ninety miles east
of Arkansas City.
“No doubt this and other events made Mrs.
Mac apprehensive for her husband’s safety. He formed the habit of blowing his
engine whistle, which he had attuned to the words ‘Goodbye Maggie,’ as he
approached the Madison Avenue crossing close to his home on South C street in
Arkansas City. This would let her know he would soon be home. When Nila and
Bonnie heard the whistle, they would race to the tracks and he would slow the
train and lift the little girls up to the cab to ride the few blocks to the
station. Then they would all walk home together.
“Nila is remembered as a pretty, happy,
vivacious child with precocious talents in music, dancing, and ‘elocution.’ Her
parents were talented and lively and all of their attention as well as that of
her mother’s widowed and childless sister, Mrs. Pocohantus B. Hanway, was
lavished on the child.
“Mrs. Mac was an accomplished dancer who
organized and taught classes in ballroom dancing. Nila played accompaniment for
the classes which were often followed by ‘socials.’ The dances were held upstairs in Highland
Hall (where the Burford Theater is now) and in the ballroom of the Fifth Avenue
Hotel. On special occasions, Mrs Mac gave balls at the hotel with music
provided by Watt Sleeth at piano, William Stickler at violin, and George Bly at
drums. Almost weekly, these events were mentioned in the Arkansas City Daily
Traveler. Sometimes, W. D. MacAllister’s orchestra, which the Traveler
proclaimed the best in the Southwest, played for the dancing.
“Nila also played piano for the Arkansas
City open-air theater on East Fifth Avenue, where Fatty Arbuckle and Ozzie
Nelson played in vaudeville. As a dancer, she won 208 cakes in local cakewalk
contests and played, sang, and danced in many local programs. On May 18, 1907,
the Traveler related with some consternation that Mr. Mac’s run on the
Santa Fe had been changed and that the family might move to Newton. Indeed,
that week’s dance might be the last one. The uncertainty lingered through July
and came to an abrupt and tragic end on August 1.
“Santa Fe train No. 116, which was due in
Arkansas City at noon, was running thirty minutes late between Otoe and Red
Rock. On a downhill grade at a speed of sixty miles an hour, the engine left
the tracks and turned completely over. Live steam poured over engineer Mac and
fireman Jack Kantzer as they tried to get out. All cars but one derailed and
tipped over. Forty-seven people were injured.
“The conductor, who was not hurt, ran
three miles to Otoe and telephoned the news to Red Rock, whence it was then
telegraphed to Arkansas City. The wrecker and emergency trains were ordered out
immediately, and Nila and Mrs. Mac and local doctors accompanied them to the
scene of the wreck.
“The conductor returned from Otoe to the
wreck with supplies to give emergency aid. The engineer and fireman had been
seen to stand momentarily beside the wreck and clasp each other, but they then
collapsed and, though Mac remained conscious and talked with his wife and
daughter when they arrived, little hope was held that he would survive.
“The first plan was to take the injured
to Topeka to the Santa Fe Hospital, but the plans were changed enroute and the
train returned to Arkansas City. Carl Mac passed away as they entered town, the
first passenger engineer killed on the Oklahoma division. Everyone else
survived, only the fireman having serious injuries.
“Nearly five hundred shocked citizens met
the train. Mac was well-known and well-liked. Funeral services were held at the
Fifth Avenue Opera House and all three floors were packed. Delegations of
Masons and railroaders from all over Oklahoma and Kansas attended.
“Many adjustments followed for Nila and
her mother. They moved to an upstairs apartment in the downtown area. Mrs. Mac
continued to teach dancing, and her sister, Mrs. B. Hanway, a Christian Science
reader, who shared the apartment, taught expression. Nila was pictured in black
in the high school annual with the sophomore class of 1907-08. However, the
story is told that she slid down the bannister of the high school stairs into
the arms of the principal, who unknown to her was waiting below. Her spirits
were still sprightly.
“During the summer of 1908, while her
young friends in Arkansas City were enjoying picnics along the Walnut River,
dances and parties. Mrs. Mac took Nila to New York, where they attended
Chautauqua classes. She was determined that her talented daughter receive
every advantage of training. In the fall Nila enrolled at Ferry Hall, a
Presbyterian finishing school for girls at Lake Forest, Illinois. She studied
dramatics and helped pay her school expenses by working in local
entertainments.
“The following year, Nila went to Boston
for further training in dancing, voice, and French. While there, she was
offered her first engagement as leading lady with a touring repertory company,
at a salary of twenty-five dollars per week. Accompanied by her mother, she
traveled with the group throughout the United States. Back home her friends
were still in high school.
“Knowles Entriken, a noted director,
commenting in Variety in later years on the life of Nila Mack, said that
she learned her business in the lost world of the theatrical road company.
‘Salaries were small, hardships were something you took in stride, and the
performance you gave was what put meaning into your life,’ he said. He also
commented that Miss Mack had a fine command of the salty language of that world
and a brisk and friendly wit.
“Not the least of the attractions the
road company held for Nila was the leading man, Roy Briant, with whom she fell
in love. Soon they were playing lead romantic roles opposite each other.
“But, in the course of the tours, when
the company ran out of bookings and funds, they were stranded at Metropolis,
Illinois. Undaunted, Briant, Miss Mack, and her mother decided to open a second
theater in the town. Briant was to be manager, Nila would play the piano, and
her mother would sell tickets.
“It should probably be noted that the
piano player was a very important part of the entertainment in shows at this
time. He (or She) played before the curtain went up, at intermissions, and
often accompanied the action in the play with appropriate music. I can remember
attending shows when we went more to hear a particularly talented piano player
than for the play.
“The Mac-Briant Theater venture in
Illinois failed and, when another road company came to town, Nila Mack and Roy
Briant signed on and began touring again as romantic leads. They were married
March 20, 1913, in St. Anthony, Idaho.
“Shortly before World War 1, they decided
to give up touring and settle in Chicago to collaborate in writing scripts for
Paramount Pictures. It seems likely that this was Briant’s forte, for he
continued to write, but the high spirited Nila missed the action of the stage.
When she was offered the second lead with a theatrical company organized by the
famous actress, Alla Nazimova, she eagerly accepted. For six years she stayed
with the company and became a close friend of Nazimova. Nila had a role in the
movie War Brides, in which Miss Nazimova starred.
“With Nila on tour, Roy Briant moved to
Hollywood to be near the studios, for which he continued to write. In 1927, he
became ill and Nila left New York where she was preparing for a role on
Broadway and went to California to care for him. He died December 15, 1927, in
Hollywood and was buried there. Nila Mack was a widow at age thirty-five and
from then on her work was her life. She continued to keep in touch with her mother,
aunt and old friends in Arkansas City and made periodic visits there, but if
she had any other romantic involvements, they were not known.
“After Briant’s death, Nila moved back to
New York and returned to the stage as a vaudeville trouper, writing many of her
own pieces. In 1927 and 1928 she played in the Broadway production of Fair
and Warmer and was a member of the cast for Ibsen’s The Doll’s House.
Also in 1928 she appeared in Eva the Fifth and the following year in Buckaroo
with Tom Wise. During this time she was also writing scenarios for movie
shorts.
“Nila Mack’s radio career began in 1929
when she joined Columbia Broadcasting System as an actress in the Radio Guild
productions which became the basis for the program later known as the ‘Columbia
workshop.’ On the radio she also had
roles in ‘Nit-Wits’ and ‘Night Club Romances.’
“But once again Nila had to interrupt her
climb to success and return to Arkansas City to be near her mother, who was now
in failing health.
“Not content to be idle in her home town,
Nila became program director of the fledgling Arkansas City radio station which
had studios in the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Her biographies say she learned many
phases of radio production there. This causes local people to smile: they
recall that she wrote the material, sold advertising, announced, performed,
recruited talent, and in general did anything it took to get the show on the
air.
“Perhaps recollections of her own
childhood performances for Arkansas City audiences influenced her, for she made
the radio station a vehicle for many of the town’s young talents. Lois Hinsey,
now a grandmother, recalls how anxious she was when she played a piano solo ‘on
the radio’ at Nila’s request.
“After about eight months, CBS lured Nila
back to New York to direct its children’s program, ‘The adventures of Helen and
Mary.’ Arkansas City’s radio station
moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma, twenty-five miles to the south. It was August
18, 1930, and the nation was in the midst of the great depression. Children’s
entertainment was at a low ebb and only in fantasy could one escape the harsh
realities of poverty.
“Nila had reservations about accepting
the job - not only because of her mother’s health, but also because it involved
child actors. She confided to friends that she really didn’t like children. But
a steady job in those troubled times was not to be taken lightly and she
finally wired back to say ‘OK.’
“Helen and Mary were Patricia Ryan and
Gwen Davies. Somewhere along the line they were joined by ‘Captain Bob,’ played
by Harry Swan. The program soon became ‘Let’s Pretend,’ which lasted for
twenty-three years and was still a CBS Saturday favorite in 1953, when Nila
died.
“Nila drew on all her resources of
education and past experience as she adapted the classic stories of the
brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Andrew Lang, and the Arabian Nights
for her casts made up almost entirely of children. She also wrote the music and
directed. She staunchly defended use of the fantasies as a vehicle and readily
admitted they were favorites from her own childhood.
“‘I remembered fairy stories that filled
me with wonder when I was very young,’ she once said in an interview. ‘I
figured that if these lively pieces with a message at their hearts and meant so
much to me, other children would like them, too.’”
“That she believed that the ‘message’ of
these stories was important was often reiterated and reinforced by her adaptations.
Working from the theory that fairy tales are children’s guides to simple
eternal truths, Mack preached the triumph of goodness over evil. Her princes
were charming, her dragons fiery and tough, courtesy and kindness counted, the
good guys prevailed, and each story taught a lesson.
“Nila modified scripts when necessary to
emphasize honor and service to a good cause. Her plays plainly spoke against
racial prejudice and she wrote an original allegorical drama, ‘Castles of
Hatred,’ to dispel the idea that all stepmothers are cruel. In 1946, she told
NEA staff correspondent Rosellen Callahan, ‘The tales are candy-coated pills of
principles of fair play, rules of courtesy, and lessons on generosity.’ In her
own words, ‘The good are very good, and the bad get just what they deserve.’
“Long before Disney adapted the story of
the seven dwarfs, it was a Mack favorite. Rather than have her heroine, whom
she persisted in calling Snowdrop, appear to be a heel who went off and left
the little friends who had aided her. Nila’s adaptation had her take them to
the palace with her where they all lived happily.
“With the help of an imaginative sound
man, who was often the only adult in the performance, she transported her
listeners to long-ago and far-away lands of talking horses and enchanted
forests. They developed some wonderful sizzling and steaming noises when oil
was poured over Ali Baba’s forty thieves hiding in jars. Bluebeard got his just
deserts, too, but only by implication:
“‘The kids are tickled to death when
Bluebeard’s sword falls, klunk, closely followed by the thud of Bluebeard
hitting the ground for the last time. They get the idea but not the horror,’
she said in a Time magazine interview, September 8, 1952.
“Nila stood firm against new models in
heroes. She didn’t care for spacemen (Buck Rogers), cowboys (The Lone Ranger),
or clear-eyed adventurers (Jack Armstrong). She stuck to her conviction that
young radio listeners liked giants, witches, and fairy godmothers best. In the
interview with Time magazine, she declared, ‘I’ll back seven league
boots and magic wands any time against six shooters and space ships.’
“Through the years, more than 250 stories
were dramatized and the program was carried by more radio stations than any
other program on the air. Polls showed that adults as well as children were
regular listeners. Most popular was the story of Cinderella, presented dozens
of times. Runners-up were ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘Rumpelstiltskin,’ ‘Jack and the
Beanstalk,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ and ‘Snowdrop and the Seven Dwarfs.’
“Some shows became traditional seasonal
presentations. During the Christmas season, ‘House of the World,’ an original
script by Mack. presented the triumph of Good Will over Intolerance, Greed,
Selfishness, and Poverty. ‘Heavenly Music’ was performed at Easter; ‘The
Leprechaun’ for St. Patrick’s Day; ‘Fairer Than a Fairy’ at Halloween; and ‘The
Little Lame Prince’ during the annual March of Dimes campaign to combat
infantile paralysis.
“In the ‘Lame Prince’ dramatization, Mack
secured permission for actor Bill Adams to imitate the voice of then President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a polio victim. The permission was granted in a
wire from Stephen T. Early, presidential secretary, which stipulated only that
Adams be named in the cast announcements, so that listeners would not think the
President was actually on the air. The appeal for dimes and dollars for the
paralysis fund through this channel was, of course, most successful. Miss Mack,
in a letter to her aunt, Mrs. P. B. Hanway of Arkansas City, said:
“‘I had a great kick out of doing the
program and the executives here who heard it thought the program so fine that
they had a record of it made and sent to President Roosevelt. I was pretty
proud.’”
“Nila Mack had many proud moments in the
ensuing years and she frequently shared them enthusiastically with her aunt and
friends in Arkansas City. In one letter, she said, ‘Well, darling Aunt, you can
be pretty proud of me today. My program won a nationwide poll. And I am
enclosing the account with my ‘Map’ (picture) in the paper! Isn’t that swell, Potie? Along with it, I’m
sending an interview by one of New York’s most widely read radio columnists
which has made me very happy, too. It all seems to be coming at once. It’s
pretty grand to know I’m still going strong and that after all of these years
of hard work, I haven’t lowered but increased my standards and output. Ain’t it
so!’
“‘Let’s Pretend’ won more than forty
awards as the ‘best children’s program in radio.’ The acclamations came from
the poll of radio editors in the New York World Telegram, Motion Picture
Daily and Radio Day, from the Women’s Press Club of New York City,
the Woman’s National Radio Committee, and the Illinois Federation of Women’s
Clubs. In 1943, ‘Let’s Pretend’ won the George Foster Peabody Award, sometimes
called the Pulitzer Prize of radio; it was voted the ‘most effective commercial
program developed by a national network’ by the City College of New York and
‘the national program contributing most to education and public interest’ by
the American Schools and Colleges Association.
“In another letter to her aunt, Nila
commented: ‘Once more I won the coast-to-coast radio editors’ poll for the best
children’s program on the air! What’s more, of the six programs cited - that
includes every station and all their programs - six were mentioned and three of
them were mine; ‘Let’s Pretend’ was ‘tops’ by a wide majority; ‘American School
of the Air’ was third and ‘March of games,’ fifth - all my programs. Isn’t that
swell?’
“Given a free hand by CBS, Nila
experimented with other programs for children including ‘Children’s Corner,’
‘Tales from Far and Near,’ and ‘Sunday Morning at Aunt Susan’s.’ In 1939 she took the ‘Let’s Pretend’ program
to Columbia Playhouse for stage performances before live audiences. All tickets
were sold out well in advance. She also once transported the entire show to the
Monefiori hospital for the chronically ill, a monumental effort which she
called ‘rewarding.’
“During World War 2, she directed a
governmental production for the Department of Interior. It was called ‘Let
Freedom Ring,’ ran for thirteen weeks, and was accompanied by a symphony
orchestra. Again she injected her own beliefs that there should be programs to
help people to understand democracy as opposed to other political doctrines.
She was resolute in her patriotism and wanted others to realize why they should
be too.
“Nila Mack wrote several children’s
stories for magazines, a book titled Animal
Allies and a story book illustrated by Catherine Barnes, which was based on
the popular radio dramas of ‘Let’s Pretend.’
“In her forward to this 1948 book, Nila
says: ‘One of the nicest things about happenings in the kingdom of Let’s
Pretend is the fact that you don’t need to explain them - that is, if you don’t
want to. You simply believe or you don’t. Personally, I enjoy being with those who
do.’
“Nila’s almost total involvement with
children for a quarter of a century was something of a paradox. From thinking
that she ‘disliked’ children and feared working with them, she came to believe
that fantasy and the elements needed to produce the effects of magic and
unreality were best achieved through the use of child actors to transmit the
childlike wonder of fairy tales to an audience of children.
“She instituted auditions for talented
boys and girls from six to sixteen, coached them in dramatics and microphone
technique, and gradually built a repertory company of forty veteran actors who
could rotate in starring, featured, and minor roles, with emphasis placed on
the total production, rather than on the performances of individual actors.
“Each of her auditions would draw many
children from whom she would choose one or two with potential. (Roddy McDowell,
of movie fame, auditioned for her just before he broke into the movies.) Nila believed that children who had dramatic
training were often no more successful than those without any. She preferred to
teach them interpretation, enunciation, and other techniques from the
beginning. She would sit down with her troupe, listening to their ideas on how
a part should be played, reasoning with them, treating them with the same
consideration as she would an adult group.
“A new actor would be given a script to
study at home. Rehearsal began early in the morning and continued to air time
the same day. New players began in small parts. Many in her casts stayed with
her for years. Others found it a good springboard to other radio shows,
Broadway, and the movies.
“Among her graduates were Nancy Kelley,
Rosalyn Silber, Arthur Ross, Bobby and Billy Mauch, Don Hughes, Billy Hallop,
Lester Jay, Jimmy McCallion, Sydney Lummet, Patricia Ryan, Jack Grimes,
Kingsley Colton, Bobby Readick, Vivian Block, and Estelle Levy.
“Dinty Doyle in the New York Journal
and American said: ‘What counts with her is the knowledge that this or that
youngster is maturing slowly - learning to act so well that it doesn’t seem
like acting.’
“Nila herself said, ‘My greatest joy is
dealing with kids. You talk to them and you see them face out, not behind any
false front. They are charmingly frank and so honest that it really gives you a
thrill.’
“Arthur Anderson, one of the long-time
‘Let’s Pretenders’ gave some insight into Nila’s relationship with her child
actors in a article in Variety after her death. ‘Nila and her cast of
child actors was something unusual in show business: a personal and continuing
friendship and mutual dependence which, in the case of some of us, has lasted
for 22 years.
“‘We formed one of the few real stock
companies of radio. It those days our acting was only for fun, and so we were
glad to accept $3.50 per show, for the opportunity of breaking into radio.
(Need I add that this was long before the days of AFTRA.’
“The actors of ‘Let’s Pretend’ were, in
her later years, Nila’s only immediate ‘family.’ except for her intimate
friends, Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney (famed husband and wife team of Life
with Father), and it was inevitable that this close relationship (with the
children) should grow. First, doing the show every week provided some stability
in our lives, as we started to grow up, and found what fierce competition and
quiet frustration the life of an actor could hold. Secondly, I sincerely
believe that Nila made the actors out of many of us who would otherwise have
been doomed to quick fadeouts, after brief careers as ‘cute kiddies’ whose
lisping voices and talent for make-believe, possessed in some degree by all
children, took the place of mature acting ability.
“She would work patiently with a new
child—start him in small parts (2nd Fairy, 3rd Goblin, etc.) and gradually
nurture the child’s talent until he was able to emote as confidently as the
rest, and was, incidentally, launched on a lucrative career as juvenile
heart-throbs on other programs. Occasionally though, Nila’s theater-wise,
irreverent sense of humor would get the better of her, as when, for the sake of
a yock, she cautioned a new snippet playing a French maid; ‘No dear—it’s not Madame,
it’s Madame. Just remember—Dame, as in God.’
“If there was too much clowning during
rehearsal, the talk-back would carry the admonition, ‘Now, cut that out, or
I’ll come out there and sock you! And
you know I can do it, too!’ But she
wouldn’t have.
“The clowning, as we grew up, began to
take the form of reading into some of the lines Rabelaisian double meanings,
which Nila enjoyed as much as anyone, even when scolding us for them. But she
could have topped any of them, and sometimes did. When, however, there was a
new and innocent young child actor at rehearsal, discipline would prevail, and
the fairies in the script would magically lose the Krafft-Ebing characteristics.
“Nila’s interest in her cast of growing
performers went far beyond that of most directors, however. We would frequently
come to her with personal troubles or, in the past few years, give her first
notification of impending marriages and blessed events. Our annual collective
Christmas presents were sincere expressions of affection, and Nila, being
sentimental, would go all to pieces at receiving them.
“Nila Mack was described by Newsweek in
1943 as ‘large, plump, hard-boiled and shrewd.’ Her acquaintances described her
as high-spirited, friendly, and humble. One kinder critic described her as
‘unspoiled as the dickens,’ and noted that she really appreciated any little
attention.
“She lived alone in a midtown Manhattan
terrace apartment with two Siamese cats named Sapphire and Tsing Fooey. She
gave parties there for her children which she referred to as ‘spontaneous
combustion.’
“She worked most of her life in the
hustle and bustle of New York City, but talked of returning to Arkansas City to
build her dream house in Crestwood near the natural bridge, one of her favorite
spots as a child.
“She loved good food, especially sweets,
and as her life became more sedentary, she added pounds. Before one visit to
her home town, she spent four days at a health farm in New York state.
“‘At this resort,’ she said, ‘I
practically go into training for a 15-round bout.’
“Nila Mack always enjoyed signing
autographs and meeting fans, and loved attention showered on her when she
returned to Arkansas City. For a bit of fun, she would call from New York and
tell her friends to listen to the next program. Then she would give the
characters in the play the same first names as those of her friends.
“She was as loyal to her old friends as
they were to her. Among Bonnie Nix’s mementoes was a card which had accompanied
a fruit cake from Schrafft’s. Across it Bonnie had written: ‘Christmas 1952 a fruit cake
My last gift from Nila’
“Nila Mack died January 20, 1953, in her
New York apartment, apparently from a heart attack. After memorial services in
New York, Dorothy Stickney and Howard Lindsay accompanied her body to Arkansas
City where she was buried beside her parents. A simple stone bearing the
inscription, ‘Nila Mack Briant 1891 - 1953,’ marks the grave.
“A last letter of instructions to Dorothy
Stickney found with her will, contained this tag-line:
“‘And if at last you should get to the
Pearly Gate.
Let me know you’re coming, and I’ll bake
a cake!’”
“Dinty Doyle, New York radio columnist,
summed itup for us. He said: ‘This amazing metropolis of ours attracts people
from all of the 48 states and the world’s countries, but few of us knew that a
little town in Kansas listed on the map as Arkansas City is responsible for
one of the most famous people in radio.’
“Someday, probably, the good citizens of
Arkansas City—and there can’t be very many of them—will realize that their town
made a great contribution to the loudspeaker when Nila Mack was born.”