some Broadway plays and was Pawley's best man at his wedding in 1922 to stage actress Martina May Martin. Radio Pawley became disenchanted with Hollywood during the attempted infiltration by the communists in the late 1930s and early 1940s and left in 1942. He returned briefly to Broadway, where he starred with Gregory Peck in what was Peck's second Broadway play titled The Willow and I. In the 1930s, Pawley had performed leading romantic roles on The Collier Hour radio program. He resumed work in radio after returning to New York City. He played opposite Lucille Wall in the radio soap opera Portia Faces Life as "Love Story Boy and Girl." Later in 1943, Pawley played Steve Wilson on the radio drama series Big Town, replacing Edward G. Robinson, who had played the role from 1937–42 when the show was produced in Hollywood. Wilson's sidekick on Big Town was "girl reporter" Lorelei Kilbourne, played by Fran Carlon. Pawley had performed with Robinson in 1926 in a comedy play titled "The Stolen Lady" at "Werba's Brooklyn Theater". During Pawley's eight-year reign, Big Town achieved the number one rating for reporter-type radio drama shows. In the January 1948 Nielson ratings, the show was ranked #12 among all radio programs, ahead of such popular shows as Suspense, Sam Spade, Mr. District Attorney, The FBI in Peace and War, Blondie and Mr. and Mrs. North. It also was in the Top 10 of all radio shows more times than any other that year except for The Bob Hope Show and Fibber McGee and Molly. His audience was estimated at anywhere from 10 to 20 million radio listeners. Retirement Pawley left Big Town in 1951 and retired near the small village of Amissville in rural Rappahannock County, Virginia. He had fallen in love with the state while touring with the 1920 play East Is West, his first professional acting role. Pawley would become the quintessential "Virginia gentleman" and was loved for his integrity, patriotism and charm. He was admired for his vocabulary and speaking voice, as well as his status as an entertainer in three different media forms (theater, film, and radio). He raised and sold championship goats, wrote poetry and was a part-time announcer at local radio station WCVA in Culpeper, Virginia. At WCVA, he replaced (Robert Gibson Corder, Ph.D.), who would later write Pawley's biography. Pawley became a member of The Lambs (the