The Candid Microphone

The Candid Microphone is an American radio program that was broadcast on ABC from June 28, 1947, until September 23, 1948, and on CBS from June 6, 1950, until August 29, 1950. It was adapted for television as Candid Camera. It used "secretly recorded conversations of all kinds of people as they react in real life to all kinds of situations." The New York Times described the show as "what amounts to a huge practical joke".

Creator Allen Funt said that the concept for The Candid Microphone came to him while he was in the Army. As he read a complaint column in the magazine Yank, the Army Weekly, he thought that it would be interesting to record something like that. At Camp Gruber in Oklahoma, he created a "gripe booth" in which soldiers could record their complaints. Funt knew, however, that people often became nervous in the presence of a microphone, so he considered the possibility of recording comments secretly with a hidden microphone and telling them about the recording afterward.

When Funt launched the program, his efforts were limited by the size and weight of recording equipment. The wire recorders that were available then weighed more than 100 pounds. He began by renting a 15th-floor office across from Grand Central Station, with microphones hidden in one room (set up as an office) and the recording equipment in an adjacent room. At least 15 microphones were concealed in the office. Funt pressed a button to signal an engineer in the other room to begin recording.

When a 27-pound portable recorder became available, Funt moved his activities out of the office, hiding the recorder in a travel bag or something similar and hiding the microphone on his body or treating it as a hearing aid. He spurred reactions in people by pretending to be a shoe salesman and saying that he had lost one of the shoes the customer wore in, asking a salesperson in a candy store to mash on chocolate candies to determine which ones contained nuts, and other activities.

The show occasionally employed guest pranksters, including Bela Lugosi, who appeared as "a shopkeeper of ghoulish curios" on the October 24, 1947, episode.

Participants were allowed to listen to the recording of their part of the program, and they had to consent to use of the material on the air. Their names were not used in the broadcasts. Most victims of pranks were good sports and gave permission for their comments to be broadcast. Compensation usually ranged from $5 to $15, sometimes reaching $25 for "obstinate cases".

Setting up stunts and recording people's comments began the process for each episode; then came the editing. Radio historian John Dunning wrote, "Imagination and cheek were the key ingredients, with a vast reservoir of patience," for the program to succeed. "For every show using half a dozen bits," Dunning continued, "at least 60 were recorded and thrown away. The editing process was painfully tedious, as many as 100 splices made in a piece of wire that yielded a three-minute stunt." Funt worked "14 to 16 hours daily with five assistants" to produce the show. The final version of each episode was recorded on a disk to be broadcast.

Funt was the producer, and Joe Graham was the director. Lamont Johnson, Funt, and Don Hollenbeck narrated the program. John Larkin, Dorian St. George, Les Griffith and Ken Roberts were the announcers. Ralph Norman and Bernie Green provided the music. In the announcer's remarks at the end of each episode, he gave the network's address and encouraged listeners to write to the program. He also suggested that they write "if there is someone you'd like to hear us catch off-guard".