Category Archives: 1940s

A case of mistaken identity

Posted on November 19, 2018 by

https://archive.org/download/OTRR_Philip_Marlowe_Singles/Philip_Marlowe_50-09-29_ep103_The_Big_Book.mp3 In Raymond Chandler’s novels or the 1947-51 radio series they inspired, Philip Marlowe wasn’t the kind of detective who plays for the headlines. “What’s the news in that?” he asks at the end of this 1950 adventure titled “The … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, 1950s, detectives, reporters | Leave a comment

A cemetery scoop

Posted on October 4, 2018 by

It’s October, and as Halloween approaches, I am reminded that I have not posted many stories from radio’s always popular macabre or thriller series… Might as well start early. “Scoop,” the December 8, 1942, episode of the scare-filled late-night radio … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, adventure, Drama, publishers, reporters, suspense | Leave a comment

Fatherly editor faces romantic son, Persian poetry

Posted on August 24, 2018 by

When Ah, Wilderness, Eugene O’Neill’s comedy-drama about coming of age, was adapted for radio, Walter Huston starred as the newspaper-owner father whose poetry-besotted son is tempted by what passed for the wild side of life in 1906 Connecticut. https://archive.org/download/TheaterGuildontheAir/Tgoa_45-10-07_ep005-Ah_Wilderness.mp3 Theatre … Continue reading →

Posted in 1930s, 1940s, adaptations, comedy, Drama, editors, ethics, romance | Leave a comment

Reporter finds Lost Angel, maybe more

Posted on July 7, 2018 by

A national public radio profile today of actress Marsha Hunt at 100 years of age sent me browsing through her career, and I happily stumbled on the movie “Lost Angel.” She played the singer-girlfriend of newspaper reporter Mike Regan, whose … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, adaptations, reporters | Leave a comment

A gentleman of the press vs. ungentlemanly gentiles

Posted on June 28, 2018 by

http://www.archive.org/download/Lux13/Lux_48-09-20_Gentlemens_Agreement.mp3 A Facebook conversation just led me to check back and see if I had ever posted a blog item about the radio adaptations of the movie Gentleman’s Agreement, and it looks like I hadn’t, other than a paragraph in … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, 1950s, adaptations, civil rights, reporters, stereotypes, undercover | Leave a comment

Getting too close to a source

Posted on June 21, 2018 by

http://www.archive.org/download/ScreenGuildTheater/Sgt_44-06-19_ep200_No_Time_for_Love.mp3 The 1943 movie “No Time for Love” and this 1944 radio adaptation both starred Claudette Colbert as a society-gal photojournalist and Fred MacMurray as her leading man. I have found no radio history book that reveals whether he kept his … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, movies | Leave a comment

Woman with a Mission, Ida B. Wells

Posted on May 17, 2018 by

Her New York Times obituary — 87 years after her death — called Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) “one of the nation’s most influential investigative reporters,” part of the newspaper-of-record’s 2018 attempt to set the record straight by publishing biographies of … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, civil rights, journalism, newspaper crusades, Race, true stories, women | Leave a comment