Monthly Archives: June 2013

Reporter, actress, find love in “Next Time…”

Next Time We Love, a 1936 “struggling marriage” melodrama with a young James Stewart as a reporter and Margaret Sullavan as his aspiring actress wife, was adapted for radio repeatedly, including versions with Stewart and the very different Jimmy Cagney as … Continue reading

Posted in 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, adaptations, foreign correspondents, marriages, reporters | Leave a comment

“I am not ‘in the news’…” — The Couple Next Door

Journalism students should find food for ethical thought in this encounter between a newspaper reporter and “The Couple Next Door.”  Prelude: Little Betsy got a bad mark at school; all the children laughed at her… and just for repeating something … Continue reading

Posted in 1950s, 1960s, children, comedy, ethics, newspaper readers, reporters | Leave a comment

Jimmy Olsen, ‘absolutely fearless’ newspaperman

From its first scene, the 1949 Superman adventure  The Mystery of the Flying Monster demonstrates how radio reminded its audience of the culture of 20th century American newspapers. The story doesn’t start with the clack of typewriters, the clatter of … Continue reading

Posted in 1940s, 1950s, Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, newspapers, Perry White, Superman | Leave a comment

Superman reboots… and Lois suffers?

With the new “Man of Steel” movie opening today, I have to point out that the keepers of the Superman flame have seen fit to “reboot” the storyline many times in its history, and the role of journalism in the … Continue reading

Posted in 1940s, adventure, Clark Kent, editors, Lois Lane, Perry White, Superman | Leave a comment

Lime with a twist: Violets, Violence and Recycled Radio

Here’s a special case of radio recycling, another Orson Welles’ script from “The Lives of Harry Lime,” turned into a “Europe Confidential” journalist-hero script a few years later, part of a pattern I began writing about some months ago. This … Continue reading

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, Drama, ethics, Europe, foreign correspondents, Orson Welles | Leave a comment