AMPLIFY: Mary Dee Dudley
For the frequent flyers of the Amplify column, you’ll know that I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so I was incredibly pleased to come across Mary Dee Dudley, a trailblazer in radio who happens to be from the Pittsburgh area. She was a staple in the black community in the 1940’s & 50’s, airing her radio show from a storefront in a historically black neighborhood for most of her tenure in Pittsburgh (2).
Born in 1912 in Homestead, PA to William & Mary Hunter Goode, Mary Elizabeth Goode Dudley was one of six children (1). Her father owned a twenty-four hour pharmacy in the Hill District, the oldest black neighborhood in Pittsburgh (3, 5). The Hill District flourished from the 1920s-1950s, acting as an epicenter of jazz and culture until much of the neighborhood, including Goode’s pharmacy, was demolished to make way for the Civic Arena. The construction of the arena and the development of the immediate surrounding area cut off the Hill District from the rest of the city and suffocated the neighborhood (5).
August Wilson’s most famous work, The Pittsburgh Cycle, is a series of ten plays, eight of which were set in the Hill District. Denzel Washington adapted one of the plays into a film, Fences, and filmed on-location in the Hill (5, 6). I typically don’t go into detail about the neighborhoods and cities of the Amplify features, but I am familiar with the Hill District and the context of the neighborhood is important to Mary Dee Dudley’s story. Dudley’s radio show was broadcast from a storefront in the Hill District, where the community could watch and interact with her (2).
Dudley and her father were not the only members of the Goode family with notoriety. One of Dudley’s brothers, Mal Goode, was an established Pittsburgh broadcaster and the first black correspondent for a major news network (ABC) and one of her other brothers, James, was Pittsburgh’s first black realtor (3).
Much of Dudley’s youth is undocumented, at least on the internet, but by my estimate Dudley graduated from Homestead High School in Homestead, PA in either 1930 or 1931. After that, she attended Howard University before returning to Pittsburgh to attend St. Mann Radio School (2). Shortly after graduating from St. Mann, Dudley applied to work at the soon-to-be launched WHOD radio station (2). According to her nephew, Dudley was told by the owners of the station that she could have fifteen minutes a day if she was able to find three sponsors (3). Dudley was able to land her sponsors - a florist, her brother James and his realty business, and her father with his twenty-four hour pharmacy (3).
WHOD launched on August 1, 1948 with Mary Dee Dudley at the helm of her first fifteen minute show, “Movin’ Around” (2), making her the first black woman in history to have a daily radio show. The station was broadcast from Homestead, PA, Dudley’s hometown. Her radio show was so well received that, after only six months, it was expanded from fifteen minutes to one hour. Then just one and a half years later in 1950, her show was expanded to two hours (2). After the show expanded to two hours, Dudley started bringing on her brother, Mal Goode, to give daily news reports on behalf of The Pittsburgh Courier (1). The Courier was, at one point, the most widely circulated black newspaper in the country (4). Goode covered everything that affected the black community in Pittsburgh, from police beatings and Jim Crow segregation to poor housing options and prejudiced politicians (1, 2). Later in life, Mal Goode would become the first black correspondent on a major television network. At some point in his life, Goode had befriended Jackie Robinson and, according to family recollection, Robinson called an executive at ABC and urged him to “get more blacks on.” Shortly after, Mal Goode was hired by ABC (3). Dudley also brought on Toki Johnson and Hazel Garland to cover community and women’s issues, making sure her show properly represented her community (2).
By 1951, WHOD relocated to the Hill District in Pittsburgh and Dudley broadcast from a storefront on Herron and Centre Avenue (2). It was at this storefront that her fans would watch and request songs for the show, making Dudley a staple in the neighborhood (2). In 1954, WHOD and “Movin’ Around” would relocate again to Downtown Pittsburgh in The Courier building, hardly a mile from the Hill District. With this relocation, Dudley’s show was expanded from two hours to four. Dudley received national attention when Ebony spotlighted her show. Dudley also gained attention for her interviews with celebrities like Cab Calloway, Jackie Robinson, and Sarah Vaughan (1).
Dudley worked at WHOD for two additional years, until moving to Baltimore in 1956 after WHOD changed its call letters to WAMO (a radio station that still exists in Pittsburgh, might I add) (2). It was in 1956 that the demolition and “redevelopment” of the Hill District began, so I can’t help but wonder if that contributed to Dudley’s departure from the city. After a brief time in Baltimore, Dudley settled in Philadelphia, where she worked for WHAT hosting a show called “Songs of Faith” until the year of her death, 1964 (3).
Mary Dee Dudley was a pioneer in her industry and helped develop a radio show format that served the black community. Dudley’s story cannot be told without mentioning her incredible family; their support helped give her a real shot to the career she deserved. Dudley and her family were pillars of the black community in Pittsburgh, and their contributions to the city cannot be overstated.
Dearest HerStry readers, I’d love to hear your feedback. Suggestions, criticisms, questions, corrections—I want it all! I’m trying to help educate the HerStry community on the badass women of our past, but I still have a lot to learn myself. Thank you, readers, for making year two of Amplify absolutely worthwhile and special thanks to HerStry Founder Julia for giving me the motivation to keep writing at all the necessary moments, even when she didn’t realize I needed it. I hope everyone is having a happy and bright holiday season, and I’ll see you in 2020!
Mary Dee Dudley’s Timeline:
1912 - Mary Elizabeth Goode “Mary Dee” Dudley, is born in Homestead, Pennsylvania (3)
1930 - Dudley graduates from Homestead High School (estimated) and then attends both Howard University and St. Mann Radio School in Pittsburgh. The years of the latter two events are unclear. (2)
1948 - WHOD airs for the first time on August 1, with Mary Dee Dudley’s 15-minute show, “Movin’ Around.” This show made Dudley the first black woman to have a daily radio show. (2)
1949 - Dudley’s show extends from 15 minutes to one hour (2)
1950 - Dudley’s show extends from one hour to two hours (2)
1951 - Dudley’s show moves to Herron & Centre Avenue, in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, PA, a historically black neighborhood. (2)
1954 - “Movin’ Around” relocates again, this time to downtown Pittsburgh, and extends from 2 hours to 4 hours. (2)
1956 - Dudley moves to Baltimore to work, but is then hired in Philadelphia at WHAT, where she works for 8 years. (3)
1964 - Dudley dies. (3)
Sources:
1) https://blackthen.com/mary-dee-dudley-first-black-female-disc-jockey/
2) https://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/radio/mary-dee-dudley
3) https://archive.triblive.com/news/goode-tells-familys-story-to-mckeesport-audience/
4) https://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/courier.html
Ashlee lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is an Illinois native - grew up in the Chicago suburbs, went to school at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, and lived in the city of Chicago up until 2015. In June 2015, she packed up with her partner and moved to the city she has absolutely fallen in love with, Pittsburgh! When she's not at work, she can typically be found in yoga class, working on the next edition of AMPLIFY, cuddling with George the cat, or enjoying trying to figure out what next home improvement task she is going to take on. Follow her nonsense on Twitter: @trashleeinpgh.