CBC Digital Archives

Mary Grannan, at home in Fredericton

They come into our living rooms via the radio or TV set, speaking directly to the kids with a friendly, familiar tone. It's a rather intimate set-up, which is why the hosts of popular children's programs often hold a special place in our hearts — even long after we've grown up. From Mary Grannan to Ernie Coombs, the CBC Digital Archives has compiled a collection of radio and TV interviews featuring some of the CBC's most cherished children's program hosts.

"It was a very happy period in my life," says Mary Grannan, referring to her time living in Toronto and working as a children's program host for CBC. Now retired and living in Fredericton, Grannan spent the years between 1939 and 1962 producing and hosting popular CBC children's programs such as TV's Maggie Muggins and radio's Just Mary. In this 1968 interview, Grannan discusses her long career at the CBC, her success as a writer of children's books, and the genesis of one of her best-loved characters, Maggie Muggins.
• Mary Grannan was born Feb. 11, 1900, in Fredericton, N.B.
  • Grannan became a schoolteacher in 1918. She liked to read the children a story every morning before jumping into arithmetic lessons, but when the school ran out of storybooks, she began writing her own stories. They were a hit with her students. For Just Mary: The Life of Mary Evelyn Grannan, biographer Margaret Anne Hume interviewed a number of people Grannan had taught. One former student said, "Mary Grannan made such an impression on me...I have always loved reading my whole life because of her."

• Grannan made her first foray into broadcasting in 1935, when she began writing and acting for children's programs on a local New Brunswick radio station.

• In 1939, Grannan moved to Toronto to produce children's programs for CBC Radio. Between 1939 and 1962, she produced and hosted a number of children's programs for CBC, but Just Mary and Maggie Muggins were her longest-running and most popular. Just Mary aired on CBC Radio from 1939 until 1962, and Maggie Muggins aired on radio from 1947 until 1954. In 1954, Maggie Muggins went from radio to TV for the new CBC Television network. It aired on TV until 1962. Grannan retired that same year and moved back to Fredericton.

• Mary Grannan passed away in January 1975, just a few weeks shy of her 75th birthday.

Medium: Radio
Program: Assignment
Broadcast Date: Dec. 12, 1968
Guest(s): Mary Grannan
Host: Bill McNeil
Duration: 3:58

Last updated: February 17, 2012

Page consulted on March 25, 2013

All Clips from this Topic

Related Content

A spring in her 108-year-old step

Mrs. Macdonald shows CBC's Bill McNeil her dance moves.