Mary Grannan
Mary Grannan | |
---|---|
Born | Mary Evelyn Grannan 11 February 1900 Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada |
Died | 3 January 1975 Fredericton | (aged 74)
Occupation | Teacher, radio personality, writer |
Language | English |
Nationality | Canadian |
Genre | Children's literature |
Notable works | Just Mary, Maggie Muggins |
Mary Evelyn Grannan (11 February 1900 – 3 January 1975) was a Canadian children's writer and radio personality. She wrote and performed in programs for children on CBC Radio and CBC Television between 1938 and 1962. Stories broadcast on her radio and television programs Just Mary and Maggie Muggins were published in a series of popular books.[1]
Family and education
Mary Grannan was born into an
Teacher and broadcaster in Fredericton
In 1919 Mary Grannan began teaching
In April 1936, while still teaching full-time, Mary Grannan began broadcasting on CFNB, a private radio station in Fredericton. One of her programs, a comedy series entitled Aggravating Agatha, became a popular success in the local market. CFNB attempted to interest the newly formed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in carrying it nationally, but the Corporation did not accept the proposal. On the other hand, they expressed an interest in increasing children's radio programming, and Mary Grannan developed the idea for her Just Mary program to meet that requirement. The program, in which she read her original children's stories, appeared first on CFNB in November 1937. It was carried on the eastern radio network of the CBC during the summer and the Christmas holiday season of 1938.[3] On the strength of Just Mary she was offered a full-time position as a junior producer at CBC Radio headquarters in Toronto. She joined the CBC in Toronto in July 1939, having taken a year's leave of absence from her teaching position, and officially resigned from teaching in 1940.[2]: 114–115
CBC radio and television
When she started work at CBC radio in 1939, Mary Grannan was responsible for two weekly children's programs. Just Mary, which was heard from noon to 12:15 on Sundays, was intended for children from four to eight years old.[3] The Children's Scrapbook, a half-hour program directed at older school-aged children, was broadcast on Saturday afternoons beginning at 12:30. It offered a variety of content, including plays, interviews, and documentary broadcasts recorded outside the studio in places such as a zoo or a newspaper's linotype printing operation.[2]: 92–93 The reporter for these documentary segments was Austin Willis, who was the regular announcer on both of Mary Grannan's programs. From fall 1945 to spring of 1946, an evening edition of The Children's Scrapbook, called Evening Scrapbook, appeared on Thursday evenings.
The Children's Scrapbook ceased production in the spring of 1946. To replace it, Mary Grannan wrote and produced a new half-hour program called The Land of Supposing. The program, which presented dramatizations of original stories by Mary Grannan, as well as adaptations of fairy tales and folk tales, ran from April through June from 1946 to 1948, and again in 1950.[2]: 175
The Maggie Muggins radio program was first broadcast on 1 January 1948 and was heard on Wednesday afternoons. It was based on Mary Grannan's book, also entitled Maggie Muggins, which had been published in 1944. Unlike the Just Mary stories, Maggie Muggins had a continuing cast of characters. By 1949, it had a larger audience than any other Canadian children's program. The radio series ended in June 1953, when the actress who played Maggie graduated from high school.[2]: 212 Maggie Muggins became a television program in February 1955.
In 1960 Mary Grannan retired, having reached the age of 60, the mandatory retirement age for women at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She stayed in Toronto and continued to work on her two programs, Just Mary on radio and Maggie Muggins on television, as a freelancer. In April 1962 a new supervisor of children's programming was appointed and both programs were cancelled. Mary Grannan returned to Fredericton and spent the rest of her life there, dying in 1975 of heart failure.[2] The family home, where she lived with her two sisters after retirement, was recognized as a New Brunswick Historic Site in 1999.[4]
Children's book author
Prompted by
Mary Grannan's books were Canadian best-sellers during the 1940s and 1950s. The Just Mary titles alone had sold 120,000 copies by 1947, and by 1962 her total sales were approximately 400,000.[1][2]: 283
Grannan was named a National Historic Person in 2018.[6]
References
- ^ ISBN 9780802090478.
- ^ ISBN 9781550025972.
- ^ ISBN 9781550025989.
- ^ "Mary Evelyn Grannan House". Canada's Historic Places. Parks Canada. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
- ISBN 9781550025972.
Appendix A.
- ^ Government of Canada Announces 12 New National Historic Designations, Parks Canada news release, March 27, 2018