The Golden Age of Radio presents “The Life of Riley” program at its meeting on Thursday, Feb. 1, at 1 p.m. in the Fountain Hills Community Center.

“The Life of Riley” radio program originally aired on the NBC Blue Network (which later became ABC) from Jan. 16, 1944, to July 8, 1945, according to a press release written by Bill Whittaker.

Afterward, the program was heard on the regular NBC network where it was broadcast from Sept. 8, 1945, to June 29, 1951.

Irving Brecher originally pitched the radio series for his friend Groucho Marx, Whittaker said.

Radio historian Gerald Nachman quotes Brecher as stating, “He was a Brooklyn guy and there was something about him. I thought, ‘This guy could play it.’

“He’d made a few films, like ‘Lifeboat,’ but he was not a name. So, I took, ‘The Flotsam Family’ script, revised it, made it a Brooklyn family, took out the flippancies and made it more meat-and-potatoes, and thought of a new title, ‘The Life of Riley.’

“(William) Bendix’s delivery and the spin he put on his lines made it work.”

In the reworked script, Brecher cast Bendix in the title role of the blundering Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant in California.

Bendix’s delivery and the spin he put on his lines made it work, Whittaker reiterated. His frequent exclamation of indignation, “What a revoltin’ development this is,” became one of the most famous catchphrases of the 1940s, Whittaker said.

Many classic radio programs such as these are contained in the Golden Age of Radio’s Bruce Florence Library, an extensive collection of timeless broadcasts on records, cassette tapes and CDs.

Membership in the Community Center is required to attend Golden Age of Radio meetings.

For more information, contact Bill Whittaker at 480-837-7961 or the Community Center at 480-816-5200.

From the twilight of the Jazz Age to the dawn of the Space Age, The Golden Age of Radio celebrates the reign of the first electronic medium, the then-modern miracle that brought news, entertainment and information into homes throughout a significant period of history.