Sandra Michael

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Sandra Michael
Born
Anna Marie Mikkelsen

(1906-05-20)May 20, 1906
Aarhus, Denmark
DiedAugust 29, 2003(2003-08-29) (aged 97)
Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego County, California, U.S.
Occupation
  • radio soap opera writer
  • radio host/announcer
  • radio actor
  • television writer
LanguageEnglish
Alma materUniversity of Illinois, University of Chicago
Spouse
John Gibbs
​
​
(m. 1935; died 1997)​

Sandra Michael (born Anna Marie Mikkelsen;[1][2] May 20, 1906[1] – August 29, 2003[3][4]) was an American writer—and sometimes host/announcer or actor[5][6]—who had a relatively brief but high-profile career spent primarily in old-time radio, best known for creating ambitious daytime dramas (she disdained the term "soap opera"). Most notable among these was Against the Storm, which, in 1942, became the first and only daytime radio drama to ever win a Peabody Award.[7][8][9][10][11]

Life and career

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Born in Denmark and raised in Lewistown, Montana and Chicago, Illinois,[12] Michael was one of four children born to Jens Mikkelsen and Catherine Nørgård.[1] She attended the University of Illinois and University of Chicago.[12]

In 1935, Michael hosted The House Party on WGN in Chicago.[5]

Looking back on her signature work, Against the Storm, in a series of articles written in 1948 for The New Yorker, James Thurber wrote, "Its success was immediate and, for a soap opera, phenomenal. [...] Its prose, often sensitive, occasionally poetic, was a startling change from the general run of factory-made wordage. So was its aware, realistic, and outspoken story. It was concerned with a college professor alive to the dangers of Fascism and plagued by the complacency and opposition of his colleagues. It became the only daytime serial ever to win one of the George Foster Peabody awards for radio excellence, given annually by the University of Georgia. 'Against the Storm' was canceled in 1942. The reason for its closing is still a controversial issue. The Michaels insist that pressure was brought to bear by the agency to make it more like a typical daytime show, and that Sandra asked that her contract be terminated. The agency contends that the plot ran its course in the first two years and that the serial then deteriorated into a series of charming vignettes peopled by interesting and worthy personalities, with just no story line left. At any rate, the large number of listeners this program had originally attracted began to decrease steadily, according to figures of the Crossley system of audience research subscribed to at that time by the sponsor of the show."[13]

Personal life and death

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On September 10, 1935, Michael, as Anna Marie Mickelsen, married her future producer, John Geibish (aka Gibbs).[14] They remained married until his death, on February 6, 1997.[15]

On August 29, 2003, at age 97, Michael died of undisclosed causes in Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego County, California.[3]

Legacy

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In 1967, radio historian Jim Harmon sought to articulate what it was that set Michael apart from her better known contemporaries.

Michael was a writer who dealt in matters of stronger import, perhaps the only matters of any genuine import ever in a daytime soap opera. Her writings were often gentle and poetic and struck a note of realism and truth missing from the work of the financially more successful Elaine Carrington and Frank and Anne Hummert. Just as Louis Armstrong might do, she took a simple, trite melody and for a fleeting note blew a note too clean and sweet to last.[16]

Works

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Radio

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Year Title Role Notes
1935–? House Party Host [5]
1935–1938 Monticello Party Line Creator, writer [17][18][19]
1938–? Valiant Lady Creator, writer [20][21]
1938–1940 The Affairs of Anthony Creator, writer [22]
1939— 1001 Wives Writer Alternating with writers Fayette Krum, Al Barker and William Hodapp[23]
1939 The Story of Mary Marlin Writer Substituted that summer for the show's creator, a vacationing Jane Crusinberry.[8][24][25]
1939–1942, 1949–1952 Against the Storm Creator, writer [26][27][28][29]
1940 Lone Journey Creator, writer [30][31][32]
October 9, 1942 The Kate Smith Show
Ep. "My Brother in Stalingrad" 		Writer With Margaret Webster, Selena Royle and Hester Sondergaard[33][34][35]
1943–1944 The Open Door Creator, writer [32][36][37][38][39]
October 29, 1943 Who Is Charlie? Creator, writer Original half-hour radio drama produced by CBS to benefit the National War Fund, featuring Orson Welles as narrator.[40][41][42]
January 29, 1950 Unborn Child Creator, writer [43][44]

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
May 25, 1953 Robert Montgomery Presents Original teleplay Episode, "All Things Glad and Beautiful"[45]
November 23, 1953 Robert Montgomery Presents Original teleplay Episode, "Harvest"[46]
February 22, 1954 Robert Montgomery Presents Adaptation Episode, "Land of Happiness"[47]
December 6, 1954 Robert Montgomery Presents Original teleplay Episode, "Fairyland Clinic"[48] aka "Dr. Ed"[49]
March 1, 1955 Robert Montgomery Presents Original teleplay Episode, "Such a Busy Day Tomorrow"[50]
December 26, 1955 Robert Montgomery Presents Original teleplay Episode, "The Second Day of Christmas"[51]
August 6, 1956 Robert Montgomery Presents Original teleplay Episode, "Maybe Tomorrow"[52][53][54]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Denmark Census, 1911", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2WW-T8YK : Sat Mar 09 00:09:40 UTC 2024), Entry for Jens Mikkelsen and Cathrine Mikkelsen, 1911.
  2. ^ "Ex-Montanan Authors Radio Drama". Great Falls Tribune. May 25, 1949. p. 12.
  3. ^ a b "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, Births, and Marriages 1980-2014", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKWD-YPH5 : Sun Mar 10 00:36:52 UTC 2024), Entry for Anna Marie or "sandra" Gibbs, 03 Sep 2003.
  4. ^ Lester, John (November 21, 1955). "Radio and Television". The Gazette and Daily. p. 14.
  5. ^ a b c "Radio Newsreel". Chicago Tribune. March 17, 1935. pt. 3, p. 6.
  6. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  8. ^ a b Skutch, Ira; ed. (1998). Five Directors: The Golden Years of Radio : Based on Interviews with Himan Brown, Axel Gruenberg, Fletcher Markle, Arch Oboler, Robert Lewis Shayon. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press. p. 61. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
  9. ^ Horten, Gerd (2003). Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda During World War II. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 154. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
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  12. ^ a b Barnouw, Erik; ed. (1945). Radio Drama in Action: Twenty-five Plays of a Changing World New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. p. 346. OCLC 1371095.
  13. ^ Thurber, James (June 12, 1948). "Onward and Upward With the Arts: Soapland III—Sculptors in Ivory.". The New Yorker. pp. 56, 55, 56.
  14. ^ "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2C6-3DDK : Wed Mar 06 22:18:36 UTC 2024), Entry for John Edward Giebish and Anna Marie Mickelsen, 10 September 1935.
  15. ^ "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VP8P-FL9 : 26 November 2014), John E Gibbs, 06 Feb 1997; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
  16. ^ Harmon, Jim (1967). The Great Radio Heroes. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday. p. 185. LCCN 67-19803.
  17. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  23. ^ "New Series". The Greenville News. May 19, 1939. p. 28.
  24. ^ "Burns and Allen on Air Tonight". Belvidere Daily Republican. June 9, 1939. p. 5.
  25. ^ "Snowed In, Marooned, Is Author's Experience". The Buffalo News Magazine. September 16, 1939. p. 5.
  26. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  27. ^ Butterfield, C. E. (April 14, 1949). "Who-Dun-It to Be Benny's Competition; Cancels Plans for Super Giveaway". The Danville Bee. p. 28.
  28. ^ Ladd, Bill (September 30, 1951). "Radio Fans Bring Back 'Against the Storm". The Courier-Journal. Sec. 5, p. 11.
  29. ^ Adams, Magee (June 27, 1952). "Look and Listen". The Cincinnati Enquirer. p. 10.
  30. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  32. ^ a b Doran, Dorothy (June 19, 1943). "Peabody Award Winner Scripts New Daytime Serial; Sandra Michael Writes New Serial". The Akron Beacon Journal. p. 15.
  33. ^ Stephan, Robert S. (October 10, 1942). "Reserve Round Table Is Year Old Tomorrow". The Cleveland Plain Dealer. p. 13.
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  36. ^ Koehler, Joseph M. (July 17, 1943). "Program Reviews: 'The Open Door'". The Billboard. p. 10.
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  41. ^ "Another Job Well Done". NAB Reports. Vol. 11, No. 51, December 17, 1943. p. 502. "Sandra Michaelson, Peabody Award winner, wrote an original radio drama for the fund, entitled 'Who Is Charlie,' which was staged by CBS with Orson Welles in the lead."
  42. ^ [ "Radio Reviews: Followup Comment"]. Variety. November 3, 1943. pp. 30, 47. "Orson Welles did a forceful narration Friday (29) on CBS in Sandra Michael's sketch, 'Who Is Charlie,' which was authored as a National War Fund drive effort. It's unfortunate that the stanza was aired 11:30-midnight, for its warmth and straightforward appeals packed by Welles' punchy sales talk warranted a larger audience than is usually tuned in at such a late hour. Miss Michael's 'Charlie' symbolized the average boy fighting for democracy. His aspirations, army life and death in combat were graphically presented."
  43. ^ "Educational Drive Against VD to Be Started Here Next Week". Battle Creek Enquirer. January 29, 1950. p. 6.
  44. ^ "First in Series Health Education" The Taylor Daily Press. March 23, 1950. p. 10.
  45. ^ "Donald Woods Is Featured in Montgomery Play". The Portsmouth Star. May 17, 1953. p. 21.
  46. ^ Riese, Randall (1991). The Unabridged James Dean : His Life and Legacy From A to Z. Chicago : Contemporary Books. p. 225. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
  47. ^ "Talent ShowSheet February 22-28, 1954; Monday February 22". Ross Reports. February 21, 1954. p. C.
  48. ^ "Radio and Television". The Journal Times. December 6, 1954.
  49. ^ Johnson, Robert (December 7, 1954). "TV News and Views; Chevalier to Return Tonight—How Is He, After All; 'Dr. Ed' Is Fine". The Memphis Press-Scimitar. p. 10.
  50. ^ "Old Age Problem Is Explored on TV". The Oshkosh Northwestern. February 27, 1955. p. 14.
  51. ^ "Today's Tops in TV". The San Francisco Examiner. December 26, 1955. p. 23.
  52. ^ Gardella, Kay (August 8, 1956). What's On? TeeVee's Cool Saleslady Warms Up for Conventions; Drama Scores. New York Daily News. p. 60.
  53. ^ Gould, Jack (Ny Times News Service)"TV Review: Two Monday Shows Leave TV Critic Sad". Buffalo Courier Express. p. 4.
  54. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

Further reading

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Articles

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  • Gray, Robert (Nov 3, 1941). "Radio Serial Author Corrects a Few Misleading Impressions". The Commercial Appeal. p. 8
  • Mickelson, Gunnar (December 21, 1941). "Bitter and Sweet of Boyhood Days Spent in Lewistown Recalled by One Who Has Done Much to Give Nationwide Fame to This City". Lewistown Daily News. p. 41.
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  • Michael, Sandra (November 9, 1942). "The Radio Serial". Broadcasting, Broadcast Advertising. p. 36.
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  • Conley, Bud (May 31, 1957). "Australians to Hear About Life in Central Montana". Lewistown Daily News. p. 1.

Books

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