Hop Harrigan on the Radio

In the Thirties heroic aviators became a hot commodity, with such comic strips as The Adventures of Smilin' Jack and such pulp magazines as G8 and His Battle Aces. In 1939 Action Comics no. 1  (June 1938) introduced the world to Superman and suddenly the young medium of comic books were a big business. The character of Hop Harrigan was both a heroic aviator and a comic book hero. With his best friend Tank Tinker and an heiress named Gerry, Hop Harrigan founded the All-American Aviation Company, which led he and Tank on an number of adventures.

Hop Harrigan first appeared in All-American Comics no. 1 (April 1939). It was the first comic book published by  All-American Publications. It was  a sister of company to two other related companies, National Allied Publications and Detective Comics, Inc. Even in the Golden Age the three companeis would be referred to colloquially and collectively as "DC Comics," as all three bore the "DC bullet" on their titles. The three companies would promote each other's titles in their own, and their characters would even appear together. Indeed, they are the companies that by 1946 would comprise the modern day DC Comics (initially called National Comics Publications and later National Periodical Publications until at last being formally named DC Comics). Hop Harrigan was created by Jon L. Blummer, who worked on such characters as Ultra-Man, Captain X of the RAF, and Little Boy Blue for DC, and created the superhero Fighting Yank for the comic book publisher Nedor.

While Hop Harrigan never earned his own title like other All-American stalwarts like The Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, he was a popular character nonetheless. He appeared as a backup feature not only in All-American Comics, but also such titles as All-Flash, All-Star Comics, Comic Cavalcade, and Green Lantern. It should have surprised no one, at least those savvy to comic book characters, when Hop Harrigan received his own radio show in 1942.

Hop Harrigan debuted on August 31 1942 on Blue Network (which would become the American Broadcasting Company during the run of the radio show).  It starred Chester Stratton as Hop Harrigan. Mr. Stratton was also the lead on the radio show The O'Neills and appeared on the radio serial Pepper Young's Family, as well as making appearances on Broadway and in movies. Tank Tyler was played by Jackson Beck, already familiar to DC Comics fans as the narrator on The Adventures of Superman, as well as the voice of Bluto in Paramount's "Popeye" cartoons. Hop's girlfriend Gail Nolan was played by Mitzi Gould, who also appeared on such radio shows as Into the Light and Life Can Be Beautiful. Eventually Albert Aley, who was also one of the writers on the show, would take over the role of Hop Harrigan. The announcer on the show was Glenn Riggs, who also served as the announcer on several other shows, including The Adventures of Jungle Jim, Boston Blackie, Ethel and Albert, and Vic and Sade. He served as Bing Crosby's announcer for years.

Much of Hop Harrigan was written by Bob Burtt and Wilfred Moore. The two had created the hit radio show Captain Midnight, so it should come as no surprise that Hop Harrigan resembled that show to a large degree. As mentioned earlier, Albert Aley was also one of the writers.

Many radio shows had fan clubs that fans could join. Hop Harrigan had no less than two: the All-American Flying Club and the American Observers Corps. Both groups had their own pins and other related merchandise. As a mark of the popularity of Hop Harrigan, in the show's second month on the air it received 124,264 letters from people wanting premiums offered on the show. In the mid-Forties Grape Nut Flakes was the show's sponsor.

Hop Harrigan lasted on ABC until August 2 1946. It moved to the Mutual Broadcasting Company, where it debuted on October 2 1946. There it lasted until February 6 1948.  By the mid to late Forties aviator heroes were not as popular as they had once been, and it seems quite possible that because of that the character of Hop Harrigan had declined in popularity. Indeed, despite having his own radio show and a 1946 movie serial, Hop Harrigan last appeared in All-American Comics no. 99 (July 1948). Sadly, he has not been seen in DC Comics very much since.

While Hop Harrigan's radio show ended in 1948 and he stopped appearing regularly in comic books that same year, he is not forgotten. Several (perhaps all) of the episodes of Hop Harrigan survived and they are available on both Old Time Radio sites and YouTube. Hop Harrigan may not be the best known All-American Comics character these days, but for a time he had a bigger impact in media beyond comic books.