What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s.

Cassidy, M. F. (2005). What women watched: Daytime television in the 1950s. Austin: University of Texas Press. 264 pages.

A television memory from this reviewer's childhood still lingers, though it originated in the decade after the one examined in this book. There is a vague memory of

watching a woman on-screen tell her hard-luck story about how she and her family had to live in someone's garage because they could not afford a more decent place. The program on which this sad woman appeared was Queen for a Day, which rewarded the "contestant" who told the most pathetic story prizes beyond her wildest dreams, usually a new washing machine and an assortment of corporate-sponsored household products.

Queen for a Day exemplified the misery show, a genre of daytime television programming first aired on radio and then developed in the 1950s into daily spectacles that featured women and appealed to women onlookers, both in the broadcast studio and in "TV land." In What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s, media studies scholar Marsha F. Cassidy provides a rich history and analysis of the variety of non-soap opera television shows that make up a broad text by which she examines meanings of femininity during the post-World War II era. Approaching this study of the daytime television milieu with a feminist perspective, Cassidy offers a wide range of case studies, each illustrating in some way the status of women in American society when Rosie the Riveter returned to her "real" job at home while television as an industry sought ways to generate revenue by appealing to a new audience--homemakers (known in the politically incorrect past as housewives).

Cassidy prefaces her analyses of the era's daytime programs by providing theoretical and historical frameworks in chapters 1 and 2, respectively. In chapter 1, the author offers a multifaceted explanation of the relationship between daytime TV and the feminine mystique cultivated during the late 1940s through 1960. Cassidy explains how the perceived tensions, held by both television network executives and "real" women at home, between the work ethic embodied in homemaking and the almost-guilty pleasure of stopping household tasks to watch television shaped the development of this new television landscape. Initially, daytime television programs, many of which originated on radio, were designed to let women continue working by emphasizing the audio over the video; later, viewers were encouraged to take a break and allow themselves the luxury of leisure. Cassidy also discusses the culture debate (high versus low) prevalent in the postwar years, and the status of women in general as illustrated by the view of social critic Russell Lynes, who observed in 1949 that in matters of taste, women dominated the "lower middlebrow world" (just one step above lowbrow culture) (p. 16). In subsequent chapters, this theme emerges repeatedly as Cassidy includes in her analyses of programs commentary by media critics of the time, who seemed largely to denigrate daytime television--thus, women's television (and, by extension, one could argue, women)--with few exceptions.

In chapter 2, Cassidy provides a succinct yet broad history of daytime television from its earliest days in the 1940s and the rise and fall of networks such as DuMont and Mutual. Initially, most daytime programming was local and hosted by women for women. Cooking, home decor, flower arrangement, sewing, and beauty tips served as show topics, with the occasional variety/entertainment program called "vaudeo" (vaudeville + video) making up the remainder of daytime TV. Cassidy also outlines the history of the big three networks' daytime lineup, and how ABC's meager (nonexistent, really) daytime offerings allowed CBS and NBC to dominate the television daypart in the 1950s and develop quality programming, such as NBC's Matinee Theater, which broke from the "lower middlebrow" pack.

In subsequent chapters, Cassidy focuses on the content of specific programs, their behind-the-scenes development, production values, and techniques, and the subtle and overt ways they either upheld the expectations of traditional gender roles or challenged them. In chapter 3, the author offers an in-depth history of the Kate Smith Hour and explains how Smith, a large woman (best known for singing "God Bless America" and serving as the exemplar of the patriotic female during WWII by raising millions of dollars in war bonds), used her norm-challenging, plus-size figure to show women that heavy could also mean healthy and successful. In chapter 4, Cassidy analyzes the toned-down masculinity of three of the era's "charm boys," Garry Moore, Arthur Godfrey, and Art Linkletter, all of whom had their own long-running programs that catered to the female audience. Each of these "charm boys" (with the term "boys" furthering the image of the nonthreatening male) molded his on-air persona using self-deprecation and a feminine style of communicating, such as treating their women audience members, guests, and viewers as pseudo-confidantes who shared similar values and jokes, while still maintaining the dominance required of the patriarchal society of the time.

Other chapters specifically address gender roles, either its reinforcement or conflict between the worlds of work and home, including chapter 6, "Domesticity in Doubt: Arlene Francis and Home." In this chapter, Cassidy provides an excellent analysis of the conflict between career woman and mother/homemaker faced by well-known television personality Arlene Francis, the exemplar of the educated, cultured, New York career woman. Even as Francis forwarded a domestic agenda on the program she hosted, in "real life" she challenged traditional gender roles as a sophisticated, urbane career woman (who, at age 47, had a 7-year-old son, her only child).

In chapter 8, "At a Loss for Words: Queen for a Day, It Could Be You, Who Do You Trust?, and The Big Payoff," the author examines how women contestants, although featured prominently on these game-show-based programs, were simultaneously starring in and being silenced by them. For example, on the aforementioned misery show, Queen for a Day, the show's emcee manages the discourse by often speaking for the women vying for the audience's sympathy, and interrupting them (typical of "masculine" verbal speech patterns, with women interrupted more). Oftentimes the women contestants became speechless simply because they allowed their emotions to overtake their ability to verbalize their stories, by crying or getting choked up (further evincing the "hysterical" woman stereotype). In the other programs, which featured stories and anecdotes of "regular" people (with prizes awarded based on answers to quiz questions as on Who Do You Trust?, or best story as to "why my wife deserves a fur coat," the premise of The Big Payoff), wives who accompanied their husbands onstage were treated as simple arm candy (this reviewer's term)--the banter between the male host and husband/contestant would crowd out the woman's ability to remain in the conversation.

Chapter 5, "Misery Loves Company: Strike It Rich, Glamour Girl, and the Critics" and chapter 7, "Matinee Theater and the Question of Soap Opera," provide polarized examples of the high culture-low culture debate. In "Misery Loves Company," Cassidy describes programs that captured the schadenfreude appeal of watching people compete for prizes and audience approval by proving just how miserable their lives were. Strike It Rich featured down-on-their-luck Americans who answered quiz questions for money (Cassidy uses the word "wretched" to describe one contestant, p. 108). Glamour Girl pitted women against each other to see which had the saddest story and most deserved a Hollywood-style makeover. Regarding the feminist orientation of the book in general, Glamour Girl served as an especially relevant example of the value placed on women's physical beauty, and made even more poignant the plight of the show's "losers," who not only did not get a makeover, but were simply ignored after they were denied the big prize, to live out their sad lives as plain Janes. These misery shows received a constant barrage of critics' scathing reviews, which were taken to heart by some of the television executives. NBC's Matinee Theater, for example, attempted to lift daytime television out of the cultural dustbin. Promoted as "a special treat for the lady of the house," the series consisted of hour-long dramas designed to counter the stigma of soap operas (p. 157). Although a valiant effort, high production costs led to its eventual demise.

The reader easily can think of contemporary examples of television offerings similar to the ones described here. For example, today, entire channels are devoted to domestic themes, such as interior decorating (Home & Garden TV), cooking (The Food Network), and shopping (Home Shopping Network, QVC), and the misery genre lives on in programs (albeit prime-time) such as ABC's Extreme Makeover and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and the degrading FOX presentation The Swan. A discussion of how daytime television and/or women's television has changed and yet remained the same over the past half century would have enhanced the rather short concluding chapter, "Visions of Femininity." Overall, however, this reviewer found What Women Watched well researched and written, and appreciated how Cassidy augmented program histories with material from actual network memos and promotional materials and photos, many from her own archives. As part of the Louann Atkins Temple Women and Culture Series from the University of Texas Press, it serves as a solid resource for both feminist media scholars and broadcast historians, and as supplemental material for courses in media and society or gender and mass media.

Erika Engstrom (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her research interests include gender and the mass media.