This is Your Life

Biography/interview show (1947-61)

Phillip Morris cigarettes sponsored the radio version of Ralph Edwards hosting "This is Your Life. Sadly, only a handful of the old time radio shows remain.

Of course, this was a "real life show that was decades prior to the so-called 'reality programming on TV today. Almost everyone in America knew and loved this show, which featured both famous people and occasionally, someone less popularly known.

The Hollywood production values and excited studio audience create as much interest as the life stories that are unraveled during the show. Some of the friends are famous, like Cary Grant, who turns out to be a good friend of Charlie McCarthy! (And Edgar Bergen, one would assume). Some friends who walk through the Philip Morris archway on the show are unknown, except to the heralded person whose life this is. Bud Collier (of Superman fame) was the announcer on some of the shows.

We are lucky enough to enjoy these few shows that are known today via radio transcription recording, or perhaps just the home taping of a radio fan. The radio version of the show is just as heartwarming and appealing as the successful TV show of the same name, as radio fans know that the human voice conveys emotion better than any close up.

For more personal slants on the stars, please see: Breakfast in Hollywood. See also: It Pays To Be Married