Rare Drama Broadcasts

Most forms of literature are intended to be read by their audience. This engenders an intimate relationship between the storyteller and the reader. However, the act of interpreting the written word sometimes comes at the cost of separating the audience from the message. Drama differs from other forms of literature in that the story is performed rather than merely read.

This means that drama allows the audience to be more closely connected to the story, but this requires some effort as well. It does not take a great deal of sophistication to realize that the actor playing King Reginald o the is not, in fact, King Reginald. He is merely an actor, but to get the most out of the story the audience is required to suspend their disbelief and accept that for the moment he is the character he is playing.

The more talent the actor displays and the more effort that goes into the production, the easier it is for the audience to suspend disbelief. This is why Hollywood action films have such a huge budget for special effects, the more visual stimulus the audience gets, the deeper they are drawn into the story.

Interestingly, drama on the radio works even better for the opposite reason. The absence of visual content forces the listener to better engage their imaginations to fill in the blanks, which, in turn, makes them more receptive to suspending their disbelief and become more involved in the story. Radio eventually lost its grip as the best place to consume drama, not because TV drama was technically or artistically superior, but because sponsors wanted to be in on "the next great idea".

Because drama was so effective on the radio, there was a lot of it. Unfortunately for the artists involved, there were a couple of restrictions for radio drama. The biggest was that with just a few major networks, airtime was limited, so unless your drama impressed the networks or the sponsors, it would not be aired. Artistically, the most difficult restriction would have been the time formats. Time Slots were usually a quarter, half, or sometimes a full hour long, and many dramas are longer than that. Sometimes a full story was told in a serialized or multiple episode format, but more often the story had to be cut down to fit the time slot.

• A Woman's Story, November 11, 1944, Blue Network Audition Program. An interesting concept for War-time soap. Young Mary Breen was madly in love with Toby and despite warnings from her mother, they were married. Of course, the marriage fell apart when he cheats, but then the War comes he joins the service and becomes a hero.
• Tomorrow, ABC Radio, October 17, 1956, Civil Defense Administration Syndication. Orson Welles narrates this cautionary tale of the day that the H-Bombs began falling. The point of the story demonstrates the difference of living in a town which takes its Civil Defense plans seriously and another with its head deep in the sand.
• The Amazing Mr. Tutt, August 23, 1948, CBS sustained. Ephraim Tutt is a rarity, an honest lawyer! He knows the law, he knows all the angles, but his practice reflects his belief that the law exists to serve people. This was a short-lived series, just six weeks, but it made a point to be friendly to veterans of the recent War.
• American Cancer Society, 1948 Syndication. "Accounting", The drama is about a young man experiencing a cancer scare and demonstrates to contributors the ways that the Cancer Society uses their money to fight this frightening disease. "Square Moon", another cancer scare, but in this case his hope might lie in the square moon, the window of a university research laboratory where the dedicated worker is doing research sponsored by the Cancer Society.
• Armstrong Theatre of Today, 1940s, CBS net, noon, Saturdays. After a news update, Hollywood Stars would appear in this weekly drama.
• Arthur Hopkins Presents, 1944-45, NBC. This anthology program was intended as a Broadway version of Lux Hollywood Theatre. Host Arthur Hopkins was the Broadway director who cast Humphrey Bogart as "Duke Mantee" in The Petrified Forest (1935, 197 performances).
• Author's Studio, December 25, 1975, Syndicated, WOR New York, sponsored by Ban Roll-On. "The Story of Young Kate Wakefield", a Christmas tale of a family doing their best in trying circumstances.
• Behold A Woman, April 28, 1950, Audition Program. Carlton Morse presents this poetically dramatized appreciation of the Fairer Sex by a well-traveled adventurer who has been around the world more than once.
• The Bennetts 1946, January 20, 1946, possible Audition program, Carlton E. Morse production. Lumber baron George Bennett is the patriarch of this large and complex modern family in the Puget Sound region.
• Broadway Playhouse, January 2, 1950. "To Each His Own". Olivia de Havilland stars. A military flier came to town for a Bond rally and impressed the local doctor, but not as much as he did the doctor's daughter. When news comes that he has been shot down over France, she announces that she is having the pilot's child.
• Broadway Talks Back, December 9, 1946, Mutual net, sustained. In a theater person's dream, theater critics face the artists they write about. This episode presents Moss Hart defending his production of "Christopher Blake" (1946, Music Box Theater, 114 performances).
• Campbell's Short Short Story, 1940, CBS net. "For Sentimental Reasons", a couple's divorce is complicated by the question of custody, who gets to keep Jeremiah, the dog?
• The City, June 29, 1947, audition, "The Airport". A poetic look at the comings and goings of the City, a place of arrivals and departures, and the people making those journeys.
• Cloud Nine, 1950, WBBM Chicago. A man is waiting at a counter for someone who will guide him to "Cloud Nine", a place where all your dreams come to life. Just step into the elevator, and in this episode, you will end up in Paris with "just the right girl".
• CoStar, Don Ameche reads the lines from half of several popular dramatic scenes, allowing the audience to play the other part.
• Crusaders for Freedom, AFRTS. A series of dramas based on the lives and writings of the philosophers and patriots whose work became the basis of American Democracy.
• Deadline Mystery, 1947, ABC. Lucky Larson is a crusading newspaperman played by Steve Dunne. The extant episodes are focused on the problems of the post-War housing shortage.
• Dramas of the Courts, 1951, true-life jury trials. The audience hears some background of the cases before being presented the attorney's courtroom examinations.
• Fifth Row Center, February 4, 1940, WGN Chicago. "Model Princess". The radio audience gets "the best seat in the house' for this series of live dramas. In this broadcast, Simone Simone plays an impoverished model who is hired to impersonate a princess, but she falls in love with the reporter covering the royal visit.
• Five-Star Matinee, 1950s, NBC/AFRTS. Compelling stories of smart women and the manly-men they fall in love with.
• Four for the Fifth. June 1944. Treasury Department Syndication. A series of four dramas developed by Arch Oboler as a vehicle for the Fifth War Loan Drive. Franchot Tone stars in a story about an American private who is transporting a Nazi prisoner.
• Grand Hotel, May 19, 1945, NBC net. "Merely Players". A mediocre actor is about to leave his more successful wife when she tragically loses her eyesight.
• The Greatest of These, Syndicated. The adventures of Attorney Harvey Desmond, a man who believes in the power of charity. He has inherited a huge sum from a grateful client and he uses it for a trust fund to help those in need. A young doctor left his hospital before Pearl Harbor to join the RAF. He is injured after joining an American outfit, but when he tried to get reinstated at the hospital he is denied.
• Hagen's Circus, Stories of life under the big top. The real Hagen's Circus was a two-ring show touring down under.
• The Heartbeat of Broadway, 1959, American Heart Association Syndication. The backstory of how some of Broadway's biggest musical hits made it to the stage.
• The Textron Theatre feat. Helen Hayes, December 8, 1945, CBS net. "Angel Street". Ms. Hayes lends her reputation and narration to this spectacular play which was filmed as Gaslight (1944). Boris Karloff stars.
• Here's to Youth, May 16, 1944, NBC sustained. "The Story of Chico". The drama begins an a Los Angeles juvenile court where an advocate telling the story of a Mexican immigrant family who winters in Dogtown but spends the summer as migrant farm workers. Chico ends up in a gang and seems doomed to follow his older brother to jail.
• Anacin Star Theatre, 1948, NBC. The program is dedicated to showcasing new talent whom the Stars of the evening believe have what it takes to make it in the movie business. Ronald Colman and Joan Bennett host.
• The Hotpoint Holiday Hour, December 25, 1949, CBS. The appliance company shares its Christmas gift, a production of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" starring Jack Benny, Gene Kelly, Dorothy McGuire, Rosalind Russell, Gregory Peck, Willard Waterman, Bea Benaderet, and narrated by Henry Fonda.
• I Devise and Bequeath, 1947, Teleways Syndication. The Story of Strange Wills made by Strange People. "Alias Dr. Svengali", a wife kills her husband while under the influence of a hypnotist.
• I Want a Divorce, Spring 1941, Mutual. Joan Blondell carries this series of cautionary tales of the many ways that love can go wrong. As costly and tragic as divorce can be, some couples simply should not have gotten married in the first place.
• Leo and the Blonde, 1947, Universal Recorders Transcription. Leo is a Hollywood publicity agent who discovers an incredible talent when his car breaks down in the middle of Wyoming. The funny thing is, he really believes in the Blonde he discovers and sets everything into her success.
• Camel Screen Guild Theatre, March 3, 1949, NBC. "Command Decision". A WWII Bomber Squadron commander faces the decision of whether to send his men on dangerous missions or to seek easier targets which will allow more of them to survive. Clark Gable, John Hodiak, Van Johnson and Eddie Arnold star.
• The Little Man Inside, May 21, 1945, Blue Network. John Nelson goes through his daily life, and the audience gets to hear his internal voice as he asks his boss for a raise.
• Manhattan at Midnight, August 21, 1940, Blue Network. Brother Frankie receives a fountain pen for his birthday along with a lecture to get a job from his brother in law.
• NBC Presents Eugene O'Neill, Summer 1937, NBC. O'Neill was one of the most important American playwrights of the Twentieth century. He was one of the first to use American vernacular on stage while embracing dramatic realism.
• New Theater, August 5, 1951, NBC. "After Many a Summer Dies the Swan". Based on Aldous Huxley's 1939 novel about a Hollywood millionaire's struggle to face his mortality. The story is a commentary of the narcissism and superficiality which Huxley found in American culture, especially Hollywood.
• Night Cap Yarns, 1943, CBS Pacific net, Cardinal Syndications. Thrilling tales which probably will NOT help you fall asleep. Interestingly, the stories are read as though from a book rather than performed lie a normal drama.
• Passport for Adams, Summer 1943, CBS. History lessons presented from the viewpoint of an American small-town newspaperman who is travelling around the world with his photographer. Produced by Norman Corwin.
• Person to Person with Ed Murrow, mid-1950s, CBS. The great newsman, Murrow, spends personal time with celebrities of the time, including sharing dress shopping tactics with singer Jill Corey.
• The Private Practice of Dr. Dana, December 21, 1947, CBS. Steve Dana is stuck in town over Christmas because his patients need him. This can't stop the dashing bachelor doc from impressing pretty girls.
• Private Showing, May 12,1946, Mutual net. An interesting concept in drama, the scripts are inspired by famous painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This episode is a ballet story based on "Rehearsal on the Stage".
• Radio Guild, May 14, 1939, Blue Network. "The Man Who Was Tomorrow". An interesting story about the personification of "Tomorrow", a man who watches everything and is able to stop time and show it.
• Radio Novels, Syndicated/AFRTS. "The Eleventh Notch". A Nevada cop is a "six-gun sheriff" in a modern world. He has ten notches in his gun, is he still man enough to get the eleventh?
• Redbook Magazine, June 23, 1932. Editor Edwin Balmer was not the first to experiment with radio to increase his periodical's circulation, but he may have had the highest quality content to work with. "The Kid" is just one example of the high literature Balmer had to select from.
• Showstoppers, 1946, Textile Broadcasts Syndication. Host Know Manning interviews some of the biggest stars and invites them to dramatize the time when the "stopped the show", making the transition from "nobody" to Star. Rudy Valley, Bonita Granville, Boris Karloff, and many others are profiled.
• The Smiths of San Fernando, September 20, 1946, Audition program. Family-based situation comedy. The program will be picked up by Mutual next year as The Smiths of Hollywood.
• Spotlight Story, 1955, Mutual. Edward Arnold tells a series of fascinating stories with surprising twists and interesting resolutions. The stories are similar to the fare of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story.
• Stagestruck, April 18, 1954, CBS. "How the Stage Helped Make Hollywood History". Mike Wallace, Mary Pickford, Stanley Kramer, Frank Lovejoy, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Lana Turner, Lionel Barrymore, and many other stars celebrate the anniversaries of United Artists and MGM.
• The Star and the Story, 1944, CBS/AFRS (broadcast as Frontline Theatre). Another movie-adaptation anthology program with stars reprising their film parts along with popular music.
• Stars in the Air, 1952, CBS. Movie adaptation anthology. "Hail the Conquering Hero", the story of a kid who joined the Marines but was medically discharged during boot camp with hay fever and is ashamed to tell the folks back home.
• Tell It Again, 1946, CBS net, "From the bookshelf of the World". Adaptations of the world's great literature. Novels profiled include A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick, Two Years Before the Mast, and The Luck of Roaring Camp.
• Tell M a Story, May 7, 1946, NBC, Audition. "The Pond". Ida Lupine stars in a story about a frightened woman. Upcoming episodes will focus on women in different situation, perhaps a woman in love, a woman in danger, a wicked woman, or a woman in charge. There are as many stories about women as there are human emotions.
• The Free Company, April 6, 1941, CBS. "His Honor, the Mayor". The Free Company was a group of writers, actors, and radio workers who came together voluntarily to present a series of plays about basic liberties. Orson Welles stars in this play which he wrote.
• The Hour of St. Francis, 1950, The Voice of the Franciscan Tertiary syndication. "The Johnny Miller Story", an updated telling of the story of the Prodigal Son.
• The Investigator, May 30, 1954, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. A biting satire of the McCarthy Hearings. Imagine McCarthy-era fears if they affected enlightenment era artists.
• Theatre of Famous Radio Players, 1945, Mutual Pacific net, Universal Radio Productions Syndication. "Madame Expose'". Lurene Tuttle plays a feminine version of Harry Houdini, with a husband who is suffering from a serious heart condition. She has based her career on exposing fake mediums, but with her husband about to go she wants to believe.
• The United States Steel Hour, April 26, 1953, NBC. Richard Widmark stars in this well-produced adaptation of George Orwell's "1984", a chilling tale of a dystopian future.
• The Watchman, Audition recording. Gene Lockhart stars as "An observer of the large and the small, the story, the dream and the prayer, of all these many things which men call life."
• We Care, September 26, 1948, ABC. "Bimbo from Limbo" Sponsored by C.A.R.E. fund appeal, hosted by chairman Douglas Fairbanks Jr. This program stars "both" Gildersleeve's, Harold Peary and Willard Waterman, in a story of how happiness and laughter is sometimes the best medicine.
• White Fires of Inspiration, 1937, CBS net. A look at not just the great stories of English Literature, but the incidence and situations which inspired them. Enjoy the story of math professor Lewis Carroll telling the story of Alice in Wonderland to two little girls on a picnic.
• WOR Drama Critics Awards, April 4, 1948, WOR New York. The Award for Best American Play goes to Tennessee Williams' "Streetcar Named Desire". Williams is in Europe; the award is accepted by Elia Kazan.
• The World's Best, August 18, 1941, NBC. The programs mission is to present adaptations of the best in world literature. This weeks story is "The Room Without a Door" by Balzac. The wife's lover is hidden in a bricked-up closet.