Red Hook 31

Red Hook 31 occupied a unique niche in Hudson Valley history. From the 1930s to the late 1940s, in radio's first Golden Era, Virginia and Woody Klose collaborated in writing and producing a variety of radio dramas including several family-oriented serials. Their fifteen (15) minute daily show, "Red Hook 31," named after the telephone number at Echo Valley Farm, Red Hook, New York, drew national attention in the late 1940s for featuring a post-war phenomenon: the humorous adventures of city-dwellers who move to exurbia. The show began with the ringing of the farmhouse phone, (three short rings and one long), followed by an interview with the caller. It was heard nationally on the Mutual Broadcasting System, and provided glimpse of what commuting to New York City would have been like for one of the advertising warriors portrayed by HBOs serial "Mad Men," like Woody Klose in the early 1950s.

Virginia Klose was a prolific writer for McCall's, Ladies Home Journal, and other women's magazines in the 1950s and 1960s. Her 1956 book, Call Me Mother, an irreverent account of her life, won a national following. Woody Klose was a nationally recognized independent producer of radio and television services from the 1930s to the 1950s, whose productions were aired on the old Red and Blue NBC Networks, MBS, the CBC and local stations in St. Louis, Chicago, and New York City. Woody Klose also wrote segments for the original radio "soaps," including such long-running national staples a "Our Gal Sunday."

Read "Our Guy Woody Radio Man of Echo Valley Farm" by Neil Gould.