Category Archives: adaptations

High school editor gets distracted

Posted on April 11, 2023 by Bob Stepno

She’s a high-school-age Shirley Temple, but distracted by playboy artist Cary Grant. It’s The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer, the 1947 Hollywood hit adapted in 1949 for Lux Radio Theater, with two of its original stars. (Myrna Loy, as Shirley’s … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, adaptations, comedy, courtroom, students, teenagers | Leave a comment

A Truman-era Front Page!?

Posted on March 28, 2021 by Bob Stepno

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….

Posted on December 22, 2020 by Bob Stepno

“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

Maybe the stories were true

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Bob Stepno

https://archive.org/download/OTRR_Lux_Radio_Theater_Singles/Lux_Radio_Theatre_45-12-10_505_Guest_Wife.mp3 “Guest Wife” was a 1945 film and corresponding Lux Radio Theater production, with foreign correspondent Don Ameche returning from India to collect something like a Pulitzer Prize. Unfortunately, as ethical as his reporting from India may have been, he … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, adaptations, ethics, foreign correspondents, reporters | Leave a comment

Cagney, Dickens and ketchup save a newspaper

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Bob Stepno

https://archive.org/download/ScreenGuildTheater/Sgt_48-02-09_ep374_Johnny_Come_Lately.mp3 Local newspapers have been fighting for survival since the horse-and-buggy days when this story takes place. The 1943 film Johnny Come Lately starred James Cagney as an  out-of-work “tramp reporter” who both rescues and is rescued by an elderly … Continue reading →

Posted in 1900s, 1940s, adaptations, closing, editors, local news, newspaper crusades, newspapers, political corruption, reporters | Leave a comment

A bit critical

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Bob Stepno

“I can save time if I write my review on the way to the theater.” –Mortimer Brewster http://otrrlibrary.org/OTRRLib/Library%20Files/B%20Series/Best%20Plays/Best%20Plays%2052-07-06%20(05)%20Arsenic%20and%20Old%20Lace.mp3 Arsenic and Old Lace (IMDB), a hit play and Capra film, was done by several radio anthology series. Here it is by … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, Capra, critics, movies | Leave a comment

Not a Christmas Musical — Media Madness

Posted on December 20, 2018 by Bob Stepno

https://archive.org/download/OTRR_Lux_Radio_Theater_Singles/Lux_Radio_Theatre_45-01-29_468_Lady_in_the_Dark.mp3 “America’s most modern fashion magazine,” complete with background clicking typewriters, is the scene of the story “Lady in the Dark.” (I stumbled on it earlier this week while researching the much different drama “Lady in the Lake.”) Long before … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, adaptations, magazines, marriages, women | Leave a comment

Pre-Christmas Noir

Posted on December 19, 2018 by Bob Stepno

https://archive.org/download/OTRR_Lux_Radio_Theater_Singles/Lux_Radio_Theatre_48-02-09_602_Lady_in_the_Lake.mp3 I was so happy when I hit the point in Lux Radio Theatre’s February 1948 production of “The Lady in the Lake” when detective Philip Marlowe needs some information, picks up the phone, calls a friend at the newspaper, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, adaptations, detectives, magazines, movies, reporters | Leave a comment

Fatherly editor faces romantic son, Persian poetry

Posted on August 24, 2018 by Bob Stepno

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 Bob Stepno

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