Nila Mack: Writer of Radio's Let's Pretend
Wrote, Produced and Directed the Very Popular Children's Radio Show.
Oct 25, 2008
Nila Mack was born in Arkansas City, Kansas, on October 24, 1891. The creator of the sensational children's radio show, she was a dancer and pianist who started out by being the accompanist for her mother's dancing school. She also acted and sang in local shows.
After graduating from high school in Arkansas City, she traveled to Forest Park, Illinois, where she attended the Ferry Hall School, a finishing school run by the Presbyterian church. Following this she went to Boston where she studied voice, French and dancing.
Traveling Actress
Mack began her acting career in repertory companies across the United States, with her mother as her companion. After a disaster in Metropolis, Illinois, where they were stranded after non payment of salaries by the company, she and her mother, along with another young actor named Roy Briant, began a company of their own. It failed, but Nila had found herself a husband. She and Briant were married on March 20,1913, in St. Anthony, Idaho.
Shortly before World War One, Nila and Roy made their home in Chicago and they joined together to write scripts for motion pictures. Later Briant went to California to further his career and Nila continued as a touring actress with Alla Nazimova, the famous actress who had become one of her best friends.
Deaths of Husband and Mother
In 1927 Roy Briant died in December while still in California and Nila then moved to New York City where she became a vaudeville performer. In 1929 she became an actress with the Columbia Broadcasting System where she acted in Radio Guild productions. In 1929 Nila Mack was summoned back to Arkansas City to care for her dying mother. Later ,she became program director of the Arkansas City radio station, where her duties included announcing on air, writing and merchandising.
Let's Pretend
1930 saw Nila in New York City once again, where she took over the reins of a children's program entitled "The Advertures of Helen and Mary." Mack soon made changes in the program and by 1934 it was called "Let's Pretend," and it ran for a very successful 20 years. Each story had the theme of goodness overcoming evil. She would present seasonal fare and each story was complete...she didn't want children to have to wait until the next week to find out how the story ended.
Cast of Let's Pretend
Nila Mack used some wonderful young actors and actresses on the show, including the continuing core cast of Sybil Trent, Arthur Anderson, Jack Grimes, Miriam Wolfe, Gwen Davies and Michael O'Day. The program won the coveted Peabody Award in 1943 and garnered other awards and kudos during its twenty year run.
After Mack's death from a heart attack in New York City on January of 1953, Jean Hight took over a director and the show ran for another year.
Source
Notable American Women:The Modern Period Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green
The Belknap Press of Harvard Unversity Press 1980
For further reading about actresses see Millette Alexander TV actress Rosemary Radcliffe
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