In perhaps the longest high school career on record, Jack Armstrong remained an All-American Boy for close to two decades. For the greater part of its radio life, Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy was a 15-minute-a-day children's serial. The show began in the summer of 1933 and didn't leave the air until the summer of 1951—although it was considerably modified by then. The sponsor for all those years was Wheaties, the Breakfast of Champions. The show originated in Chicago, long the center for soap operas and the adventure serials that filled the 5-6 pm children's hour on radio. The producer of the Jack Armstrong show was an advertising agency headed by Frank Hummert—who with his wife Anne would later produce such long-lasting programs as Ma Perkins, Just Plain Bill, Our Gal Sunday, and Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons. The writer who developed the idea and...