Category Archives: 1940s

Celebrity Interview Goes Wrong

There’s really no journalism practiced in this episode of “A Date with Judy” from April 3, 1945, although the teenage heroine is going off to do a celebrity interview with actor Charles Boyer, in town for a wartime Red Cross … Continue reading

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Does “Foreign correspondent” deserve quotes?

https://archive.org/download/otr_chanduthemagician/49-02-03_BLACK_STEPS.MP3 “I never thought we’d really know a foreign correspondent!” the two youngsters gush, in an early scene of this 1949 radio drama.“Oh now children,” says their mother. “Stop acting as if he’s a foreign correspondent in the movies.” The … Continue reading

Posted in 1940s, adventure, foreign correspondents, stereotypes, villains | Leave a comment

Minnie Pearl with the news

https://archive.org/download/GrandOleOpryOtr/023-GrandOleOpry09-25-43.mp3 In a rare crossover between my personal research interests in Old Time fiddle music and Old Time Radio, I stumbled onto the Grand Ole Opry of September 25, 1943, with Cousin Minnie Pearl being introduced as “our girl reporter … Continue reading

Posted in 1940s, folklore, local news, newspapers, women | Leave a comment

A Clue in the Clouds

https://archive.org/download/OTRR_Casey_Crime_Photographer_Singles/Casey44-02-2633TheClueInTheCloudscaseyPressPhotographer.mp3 Long before the advent of Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure, “The Clue in the Clouds” was a technology-rich episode of “Casey, Press Photographer,” more often known as “Crime Photographer,” one of the longest-running old-time radio dramatic series to feature … Continue reading

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Military radio tells Stars & Stripes History

Back in 1947, “The Voice of the Army” used radio-drama techniques to tell the history of the U.S. armed forces newspaper, Stars & Stripes, begun during World War I. https://otrrlibrary.org/OTRRLib/Library%20Files/U-V%20Series/Voice%20Of%20The%20Army/Voice%20Of%20The%20Army%20xx-xx-xx%20(363)%20The%20Stars%20and%20Stripes-A%20Newspaper.mp3 The radio show itself was a post-World War II Army … Continue reading

Posted in 1940s, historical figures, journalism, newspapers, true stories, World War II | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Truman-era Front Page!?

In 1948, ABC radio tried out an updated version of the Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur newsroom classic The Front Page as a 13-week summer-replacement series. Newsroom-background sounds set the opening scene, not unlike the start of the gender-shifted Front … Continue reading

Posted in 1920s, 1940s, adaptations, detectives, Drama, editors, Hildy Johnson, newspapers, radio | 2 Comments

Liz Lane, not Lois….

“I haven’t got a farm; I haven’t even got a windowbox,” the magazine columnist admits, when she realizes her habit of spinning fables about country living may destroy her career — just in time for the holidays. I wrote this … Continue reading

Posted in 1940s, 1950s, adaptations, ethics, magazines, movies, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Columnist, ethics & blackmail

https://archive.org/download/OTRR_Mr_and_Mrs_North_Singles/Mr_and_Mrs_North_52-03-04_ep439_TCOT_Heavenly_Body.mp3 “Mr. & Mrs. North” was a long-running husband and wife detective series in books and radio, reminiscent of the “Thin Man” movie series. The Internet Archive holds about 80 episodes from the 12-year run of the series, but collector … Continue reading

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Abolitionist editor Jane Grey Swisshelm

The sound of a whip on a silent slave’s back opens Troublesome Jane, an original 1949 Cavalcade of America episode about editor Jane Grey Swisshelm launching an abolitionist newspaper in Minnesota before the Civil War. (“Aren’t there any hacksaws in … Continue reading

Posted in 1940s, 19th century, cavalcade, civil rights, historical figures, women | Leave a comment

A Cowtown Newspaper War

https://archive.org/download/OTRR_Frontier_Town_Singles/Frontier_Town_49-xx-xx_ep19_Five_Gun_Final.mp3 “Five-Gun Final,” an episode of “Frontier Town,” finds a wild west lawyer hero and his W.C. Fields sound-alike sidekick investigating a new newspaper that is trying to put the responsible competition out of business through the 19th century equivalent … Continue reading

Posted in 1940s, competition, editors, publishers, westerns | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment