Bernard Braden - Early Years

Early Years

Braden was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and educated at Magee Secondary School, Kerrisdale, Vancouver. He produced plays on CJOR Vancouver in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He married Barbara Kelly in 1942 and they moved to Toronto the same year. Seven years later, he, his wife and two children moved to England. (A third child, Kim was born in London in 1949.) The couple's first major success came in 1951 with An Evening at Home with Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly.

The radio show Breakfast with Braden began on Saturday morning, 21 January 1950, initially putting Bernard Braden alongside his dumb girlfriend, Pearl Carr ("Sing, Pearl"), second singer stooge Benny Lee and naive third stooge, bandleader Nat Temple ("Play, Nat!"). On 19 September the same year came the advent of the late evening Bedtime with Braden, with his signature sign-out song "Lullaby of Birdland" which he may or may not have played himself on the piano, followed by various sequels including Between Time, Bathtime and Bedlam with Braden. The usually straight BBC announcer was Ronald Fletcher who, together with Nat (just like Wallace Greenslade in the contemporary Goon Show), was drawn into the script which added to the ingenuity and enjoyment.