Status Guide – “Teen-Age Book Club”

RGJ — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:30:00 +0000

This panel discussion, featuring actual teenagers critiquing a new book each week, was broadcast by ABC from August 13th, 1948 to October 29th, 1948. It ran on Fridays from 7:30-8PM. I believe it was moderated by Margaret C. Scoggin. A total of 12 episodes were broadcast before the series. Beginning November 5th, a fifteen-minute program called Tales of the Red Caboose ran from 7:30-7:45PM with a fifteen-minute film filling out the rest of the half-hour.

Next to nothing is known about Teen-Age Book Club, not the names of the books covered or the names of the teenagers participating. Was there a regular panel that appeared each week? The guests listed in the following status guide come from The New York Times and may reflect writers and editors appearing each week and not the teenage reviewers. None of the episodes are known to exist, unfortunately, so there’s no way of knowing how each episode played out.

Season One: 1948

Ep. #	Airdate	Status
1.	08/13/1948

2.	08/20/1948

3.	08/27/1948

4.	09/03/1948
	With Betty Betz.

5.	09/10/1948
	With Harry Haenigsen, Cartoonist.

6.	09/17/1948
	With Gareth Garreau.

7.	09/24/1948
	With Ed Wallace.

8.	10/01/1948
	With Ed Wallace.

9.	10/08/1948
	With Louis Untermeyer

10.	10/15/1948
	With John Campbell.

11.	10/22/1948

12.	10/29/1948
	With Carl Glick.

Television Obscurities » Teen Age Book Club

Status Guide – “Teen-Age Book Club”