The Silent Service

In response to the poster who asked what major studio owned the show, I am guessing it would be NBC, as California National Productions was run out of the West Coast division of NBC. That said, many California National shows are starting to fall into public domain use; such as many episodes of the William Bendix version of "Life of Riley", "Adventures of Hiram Holliday", and others. I would suspect, based on that, that the "major studio" who is trying to get their hands on the films would be a DVD distributor who wants to release the show. I say more power to them. "The Silent Service" was a great show, I used to stay up very late during the summertime when I was in grade school in the 60s to watch reruns of the show on a local independent station.

I can vividly recall watching this series on Saturday nights during my early teen years. I'd lie on the carpet in our living room and marvel at the opening of each show when you'd see a vintage WWII submarine shooting almost straight up out of the water in what appeared to be an emergency surfacing exercise. The series dramatically chronicled the actions of the United States submarine service during the second World War. The story of a different submarine and it's heroic crew was featured each week and the actors always kept my young mind stimulated with their dramatic portrayals of early submariners. I'm sure the series has been off the air for about 50 years, but I still think about it whenever I reflect on my favorite viewing in the early years of B&W T.V.

RATING: A+, Four Stars(****), Don't Miss!! EX-Cellent!!

Tuesday evenings in 1957-59 were the nights for our Boy Scout Troop meetings held at St.Theodore's Church Basement. It was the same evening as RED SKELTON, GARRY MOORE and for a couple of years, that little syndicated half-hour, THE SILENT SERVICE. It was bad enough to miss RED, but a series depicting real life occurrences from World War II, never! The Serieswas Emceed by the series Producer, Rear Admiral Thomas M. Dykers, USN (Ret.). He would be joined by a member of the real crew, be he an Officer or Enlisted Man and the 2 would have a short discussion at the conclusion of the story. Admiral Dykers also did the introduction, but did it solo.

So, Scout Troop 483's meetings were usually over by 9 P.M., sharp. (If we weren't, we were subject to the wrath of Mr. Enn, the psychotic, megalomaniac building Janitor. Mr. Enn would come in and start turning out the hall's lights at 9:00 PM, whether or not that we were still there!) Well, we were out by (9:00 PM!)and on our way home. Our house lie about 7 blocks away, hmmm, THE SILENT SERVICE came on at 9:30 over Channel 5! So there was time to make a quick stop at Jim's Grill on 63rd Street & Hermitage. Here we had a choice of hamburgers, hot dogs, hot tamales, malts, etc., all the usual stuff.

But c'mon now! this was Jim's! As often as not we would get his specialty of the house, The Juice Bun! A Juice Bun was a cutting of French Bread (Gonella Brand locally), sliced open but leaving the bread joined, like a hot dog bun. Then the inside was coated with a generous amount of the house special BBQ sauce!! Ummm-ummm! And it could be taken as a go along, carry-out to be eaten while in transit to Home and THE SILENT SERVICE, remember? So, we would be home in plenty of time for the half hour program of the day. They would take the true stories of various crews of subs and dramatize them. The individual shows were always full of interest and some excitement as our submarine members of "the Silent Service" conducted their missions vs. the Axis Powers' Navies and shipping. Most episodes were set in the Pacific and the War against Imperial Japan.

One episode was devoted to the U.S.S. Silversides a World War II Sub, by then de-commissioned. It was moored right here in Chicago being docked in the waters at the Old Naval Armory.

It was great to have here, as it not only was seen as a symbol of our Nation's Navy with its Strength & Freedom, and as a Symbol of our Freedom, but it was open for tours for gratis! Our Scout Group did the tour at least once! As the song goes, "Dragons live forever, but not so Little Boys!", and the years soon slipped away, with our having many more interests and not thinking about The Navy, The Silversides or THE SILENT SERVICE. During that stretch of years of about 2 decades in length, the Silversides was sold by Uncle Sam to a private company. What next? But it was good news, at least temporarily, as the Company purchasing the Sub turned it into a Privately Owned Museum, open to the public for tours, all for a small donation.

This was indeed good news for Chicago and Her Visitors; as we already had the captured World War II German U Boat, the U 505 on display in the Lakefront at The Museum of Science and Industry! Now, with the Silversides Museum, we had 2 Subs, one Amewrican/Allied and the other German/Axis! It was like bringing the World to our own doorsteps! It was too good to be true, and was not to last! Somewhere, along about ca. 1984-5 a decision was made in Chicago City Council to charge the small,independent non-profit Silversides Museum a mooring fee, like one that the Rich Folk paid for their Yachts. This was a hardship that would break the Sikversides people.

Then came the day when a ship sailed into the harbor around Navy Pier*, where the Silversides was moored. The ship hooked up a tow line ti Her, and promptly pulled her out to relocation quarters in Muskegeon, Michigan. Our Silversides was gone, but not totally, being right across this Inland Sea of Great Lakes, Michigan branch.** Too bad that the ^%$#*&@'s in City Hall, Mayor Harold Washington, Alderman Vrydolyak, Alderman Burke, Alderman Pucinski and Alderman Mell, etc., etc., didn't just listen to the Boys of Chicago!!

NOTE:* Navy Pier is an Exposition Centre owned and operated in the Public Interest. It hosts various events, e.g., The Flower Show, The Leatherworks Show, Hobbis Show, etc., as well as permanent attractions like the Great Amusement Park with the Super-Tall Ferrous Wheel, which has become Navy Piers Symbol. Don't confuse this with the now defunct Naval Armory, a U.S.Naval Reserve Training Facility.

NOTE:** Even though some idiot insisted on collecting the Fee from The Silversides people, no one said anything about the Free Ride that one Columbia Yacht Club has (still to this day)in docking its huge Yacht/Meeting Facility, ironically almost directly adjacent to where the Silversides had been, at The Old Naval Armory!

My father, Capt Harley K. Nauman, was featured on one of the silent service episodes. I was very young and don't remember much more. My father was captain on the Steckleback and the Salmon during WWII. Any information on the episode he was in and where I can get a copy of it would be very helpful. My fathers year of birth was 1910, he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934 and retired from the Navy in 1964 with the rank of Rear Admiral. I don't have much more information but can contact my sister with questions you may have. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

BILL BUEHLER California

This was a fantastic series about U.S. Navy Submarines in WWII. It starred the regular TV actors of the the day and each episode was based on fact. Also the host often had the real people of the story on at the end of an episode to get their comments. It was great history and weekly entertainment. It really should be brought out on DVD both for those of us that remember it and to preserve television history itself. The combination of real footage and actors on the submarine set seemed pretty seamless to me but then I couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 years old when it was on TV. I just know that it is one of the shows I remember quite well from that period. It was entertaining but was obviously done more for telling the history than 'entertaining' people. For me that was more than enough.