In the late 1940’s Jean King was a virtual girlfriend to all men during the golden era of radio. The sultry-voiced siren developed a cult following with comments like, “Sweetie, no matter what anyone says, I love you better than anybody in the whole world.” Long before we could live out entire relationships online, Lonesome Gal was a simulated lover to her devoted listeners, broadcasting her sweet nothings over 50 stations across the United States. A native of Dallas, Texas, the band leader and one-time beauty contest winner, had tried to make it big in Hollywood, but returned to the Midwest after failing to become an actress. While she returned to a much smaller market, she pitched a 15-minute “Lonesome Gal” to radio station WING in Dayton, Ohio, and immediately found an audience of “lonesome boys.” At night, she would take on the “Lonesome Gal” role between jazz and other romantic music. She spoke in first person, allowing her fans to imagine she was their paramour, with King referring to them with pet names like “angel,” “dreamboat” and “sweetie.” She often opened the show by setting the mood, telling her listener to get comfy and sit beside her, “forgetting everything for a while besides us.” She wore a black mask over her eyes for publicity photos — to keep her anonymity in case she met any overzealous fans — and kept her real name secret for the first few years of the program. King provided comfort that was arguably just as therapeutic as it was romantic. She said that she was inspired by her own loneliness living in Dayton. After two years, “Lonesome Gal” had gotten so popular that she moved back to Los Angeles. At that point, she was making a 6-figure income on the radio, as well as making ads for beer and tobacco companies. Alas, the lonesome girl was not so lonesome herself. Her radio producer husband, Bill Rousseau, brought the show to over 50 other cities and she received thousands of fan letters, including, not surprisingly, many marriage proposals. At her peak, she was recording approximately 300 programs a week for different markets. By the early 1960s, "Lonesome Gal" had faded from the air waves. King died of a heart attack at the age of 76 in 1993. While most episodes of ”Lonesome Gal” have been lost, some are still available on YouTube and archive.org, for your listening pleasure.
