Category Archives: 1940s

Mickey Rooney’s newspaper days — on radio

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Bob Stepno

Mickey Rooney, who died Sunday at 93, was most famous for playing scrappy, funny and musical young men in the 1930s and ’40s.His starring role in this spring 1948 radio drama didn’t have any “Hey kids, let’s put on a … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, newspapers, reporters, sports | Leave a comment

Classified ads become news

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Bob Stepno

Page one news wasn’t the only part of the newspaper to make it into radio dramas. This story begins in the back pages — the classified ad section. That’s where Lenore Case, secretary to the editor of The Daily Sentinel, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, GreenHornet, newspapers | Leave a comment

More on radio-film adaptations – and a bit of Libel

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Bob Stepno

Just when I thought I had a nice round figure — 50 radio adaptations of Hollywood films about journalists — I discovered that two movies I had already written about weren’t on the master list, which includes quite a few I … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, adaptations, Europe, television | Leave a comment

Covering a war, start to finish, with a Soldier of the Press

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Bob Stepno

by Bob Stepno The Old Time Radio Researchers Group collection of the United Press radio drama “Soldiers of the Press” at the Internet Archive contains fewer than half the episodes of this World War II series, but so far the … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, foreign correspondents, Soldiers of the Press, true stories, United Press, World War II | Leave a comment

A Risky Resolution to Start a Big Town New Year

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Bob Stepno

Begin with a murderous hood named “Silky,” add a stripper named “Bubbles,” and introduce crusading newspaper editor trying to help a cleaning woman’s son, and you have just a few of the cliches in this “Big Town” story, “The Dangerous … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, crime, editors, World War II | Leave a comment

A Christmas story – Superman versus the Nielsen racket

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Bob Stepno

December 1946 — The bad guy in this Superman story isn’t threatening the world, but he could cost Clark Kent his job, and right before Christmas too! Yes, as the headline above suggests, the villain is a racketeer named Nielsen, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, adventure, Clark Kent, comics, editors, Jimmy Olsen, journalism, newspaper crusades, newspapers, Perry White, reporting, Superman, World War II | Leave a comment

It Happened More Than One Night — on radio

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Bob Stepno

by Bob Stepno“It’s a Wonderful Life” had no newspaper characters to give me an excuse to include the seasonal favorite here, so I’ll make a holiday present of another Frank Capra classic: It Happened One Night appeared on the silver screen … Continue reading →

Posted in 1930s, 1940s, adaptations, Capra, comedy, reporters, romance, stereotypes | Leave a comment

A dark “Christmas Holiday” on radio

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Bob Stepno

Despite the title, “Christmas Holiday” is no Santa-and-sleighbells yule feature, but a “film noir” drama with a newspaper reporter as a pivotal character: He starts out on the shady side, does a couple of favors for the lead characters, and … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, adaptations, crime, holidays, movies, reporters | Leave a comment

Warming up with June Bride

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Bob Stepno

Here two radio adaptations of a snow-flaky romantic comedy called “June Bride,” about a magazine team trying to get a wedding feature written in a midwestern winter so that it will be set in type to greet spring readers. The … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, 1950s, adaptations, comedy, editors, foreign correspondents, magazines, romance, women | Leave a comment

Newspaper in the radio family living room

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Bob Stepno

In the 1940s, the newspaper habit was hard to break, as demonstrated in the “Seventeen Days” video of readers lining up to buy daily papers off the loading docks during a New York delivery strike, and New York’s mayor reading the comics … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, comedy, newspaper readers, newspapers, readers | 1 Comment