"West Virginia" is a miniseries that was produced for West Virginia Public Television in the mid nineties. Many people, including state residents, are unfamiliar with the stories and history of West Virginia, and thus this film provides a great starting point for learning about this wonderful state. All of the major issues in state history are covered, from early settlement,to the Civil War and the birth of the state, to the unionization of the coal fields, and to modern times. If you are interested in the history of West Virginia, find a copy of this or watch for it on West Virginia PBS channels. It is also available at the Ohio County Public Library, Wheeling. The portion that documents the It's Wheeling Steel program, 'Did You See My Girls on the Radio' is in Part IV of the documentary. It is a very touching tribute to the men and women who worked in the steel industry in the Ohio Valley and to the indigenous talent.


[ Did You See My Girls on the Radio?]

Listen to the mill whistle. It's Wheeling Steel. On the dawn of a new year, this is the Wheeling Steel family broadcast from the headquarter city of the Wheeling Steel Corporation, Wheeling, West Virginia, with music by the....

[continues in background behind film narration]
["It's Wheeling Steel" radio broadcast]

On January 2, 1938, It's Wheeling Steel, a live radio program from the Capitol Theater in Wheeling, premiered coast-to-coast on the Mutual Network.

...We welcome thousands of our families. We extend also a hearty welcome to you other friends of Wheeling Steel, our customers and your families. For your enjoyment, It's Wheeling Steel.

There was nothing on the airwaves quite like it.

Headliner appearances on these programs are made by members of Wheeling Steel families or men and women right out of the mills, the factories, or the offices of the corporation. These are not acclaimed radio performers. Many in the course of these broadcasts will face the microphone for the first time. Others can claim a limited experience. In every case, their sincere efforts are to please their vast radio audience. (music and singing) The stars at night are big and bright... [singing and music continue in background behind film narration]
["It's Wheeling Steel" radio broadcast]

Among the amateur stars were the "Steel Sisters," a trio of high school girls; the "Singing Millmen"; and Sara Rehm, "the singing stenographer."
The show was the brainchild of John Grimes, Wheeling Steel's director of advertising. Grimes had first proposed the idea in 1931, but company executives were skeptical. Then, Wheeling, like other blue collar towns in the 1930s, was divided by labor troubles. Soon after Wheeling Steel signed a union contract with steelworkers in 1937, the company gave Grimes the go-ahead. A radio show could plug company products, and perhaps rekindle the feeling that Wheeling Steel was one big family.

They got the idea of the family broadcast and it wasn't very hard to do because Wheeling has always been a very musical city. Every little night club in town had a band and practically everybody in Wheeling either worked for Wheeling Steel or had a father or a mother or uncle or aunt working for Wheeling Steel.
[Earl Summers]

Open auditions drew hundreds of hopeful stars. Included were a millworker's three teenage daughters: Janet, Margaret June, and Betty Jane Evans.

My parents were very musical. My mother played the piano; my father sang. Everybody in the family sang. We used to have a saying at our house: "And the night shall be filled with music and the cares that infest the day shall fold their tents like the Arabs and silently slip away." That was our family philosophy. Don't worry when you go to bed tonight because that's already over with and you can't do anything about it. Just look forward to tomorrow. And we did that.
[B. J. Evans Gee]

"It's Wheeling Steel" was an overnight hit. LIFE Magazine published a glamorous photo essay on the cast. The show broadcast from the 1939 World's Fair in New York, then joined the NBC Blue Network. Millions of Americans tuned in every Sunday afternoon.

My mother was so proud of me. "Did you see my girls on the radio?," she always used to say. And we were just plunged into a brand new, whole life that people just don't expect to ever happen to them in a small town like Wheeling.
[B. J. Evans Gee]

We conclude the Wheeling Steel program earlier than usual today in order that we may hear the voice of the President of the United States.
["It's Wheeling Steel" radio broadcast]

Then, on December 7, 1941, "It's Wheeling Steel" was suddenly pre-empted by an announcement from President Roosevelt: America was at war. [Roosevelt's voice in background]
A second world war changed everyone's lives once again. Coal miners were called back to work, women hired on to keep mills and factories operating. Chemical plants along the Kanawha River expanded to meet the need for explosives and synthetic rubber.
In White Sulphur Springs, the U. S. State Department rented The Greenbrier to house enemy diplomats -- the nation's first five-star internment camp. Wheeling Steel converted its mills to weapons production and its radio show into a patriotic arm of the war effort. "It's Wheeling Steel" hit the road, playing at war bond rallies across the country.

Oh my heavens, in four years we sang so many songs. Everything was oriented to the war, like "Don't Sit under the Apple Tree" and "You'd Better Give Me Lots of Lovin' Honey while Your Honey's Still Around," "Miss You."
[B. J. Evans Gee]

Then, in 1944, John Grimes' health began to fail, and Wheeling Steel abruptly canceled its radio program. On June 18, "It's Wheeling Steel" went on the air for the last time.

It's Wheeling Steel direct from the stage of the Capitol Theater in Wheeling, West Virginia, and here is Carlo Ross. (music and singing) Got a feeling, I'll be steeling back to Wheeling, West Va." [music and singing continue in background]
["It's Wheeling Steel" radio broadcast]

We didn't know it was going to end. It was terrible because it was an end of an era for all of us that had been on. The song we sang was "We'll Meet Again, Don't Know Where, Don't Know When." And everybody on the stage was in tears. It was just awful. Even the audience was crying.
[B. J. Evans Gee]

Musicians returned to local bands; secretaries and steelworkers to the mill. The Evans Sisters went home, where they resumed a more normal life. But they never stopped singing.

Goodbye everybody.

["It's Wheeling Steel" radio broadcast]