WGLT McHistory Series

McHistory: Paul Rhymer, the man who put Bloomington 'on the air'

August 8th, 2023

Listen to the audio on WGLT's website here

McHistory goes back in time to explore big moments and small stories from McLean County history. McHistory episodes can be heard periodically on WGLT's Sound Ideas.

It's said that good writing is the soul of radio. A Bloomington-Normal boy made good exemplifies that adage.

It's hard to dramatize the failure of the butcher to deliver meat, or the business of buying a Christmas present for the boss. Yet Paul Rhymer did so for a big nationwide audience on the NBC radio network during the golden age of radio in the 1930s and 1940s.

Paul Rhymer, the writer of the popular radio soap opera Vic and Sade came back to his hometown in 1938 for Paul Rhymer Day in Bloomington.

One of the most popular shows on the air was a soap opera called "Vic and Sade." These mostly 15-minute vignettes ran weekdays. “Which explored the gentle absurdities of Midwestern small town life from the perspective of Vic and Sade Gook, their foster son, Rush, and uncle Fletcher,” said Bill Kemp, librarian and archivist at the McLean County Museum of History.

Bill Kemp

Librarian

Contact Bill