Nila Mack (October , in Arkansas City, Kansas â€" January , in New
York, New York) was the creator and director of Let's Pretend, the
long-running CBS radio series for children. She was the Director of
Children's Programs for CBS from to .Born Nila Mac, she was an only
child. She added a "k" to her name because she felt "Mac" looked like
a nickname. However, some sources, including her obituary in The New
York Times, said her birth name was Nila MacLoughlin. Her mother,
Margaret, was a dance instructor. Her father, Don Carlos, was a
railroad engineer who died in a train accident when Nila was very
young. After his death, she attended an Illinois finishing school,
Ferry Hall in Lake Forest, and later took classes in both Arkansas
City and Boston, financing her education by playing piano at her
mother’s dance studio.She joined a traveling repertory company where
she met and married actor Roy Briant. She worked in vaudeville and
spent six years with the Nazimova company, appearing with that troupe
on Broadway in Fair and Warmer and A Doll’s House, as well as the
play and film versions of War Brides (). When her husband died in
December , after years of their marriage, Mack took various acting
jobs and wrote comedy for Nydia Westman and Fanny Brice.“Broadway
prepared me for radio,†said Mack, who was cast in CBS’
experimental Radio Guild of the Air, the series that evolved into the
Columbia Workshop, and a CBS comedy show, Nit Wits. She scripted and
narrated the Night Club Romances series.
York, New York) was the creator and director of Let's Pretend, the
long-running CBS radio series for children. She was the Director of
Children's Programs for CBS from to .Born Nila Mac, she was an only
child. She added a "k" to her name because she felt "Mac" looked like
a nickname. However, some sources, including her obituary in The New
York Times, said her birth name was Nila MacLoughlin. Her mother,
Margaret, was a dance instructor. Her father, Don Carlos, was a
railroad engineer who died in a train accident when Nila was very
young. After his death, she attended an Illinois finishing school,
Ferry Hall in Lake Forest, and later took classes in both Arkansas
City and Boston, financing her education by playing piano at her
mother’s dance studio.She joined a traveling repertory company where
she met and married actor Roy Briant. She worked in vaudeville and
spent six years with the Nazimova company, appearing with that troupe
on Broadway in Fair and Warmer and A Doll’s House, as well as the
play and film versions of War Brides (). When her husband died in
December , after years of their marriage, Mack took various acting
jobs and wrote comedy for Nydia Westman and Fanny Brice.“Broadway
prepared me for radio,†said Mack, who was cast in CBS’
experimental Radio Guild of the Air, the series that evolved into the
Columbia Workshop, and a CBS comedy show, Nit Wits. She scripted and
narrated the Night Club Romances series.
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