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Lux Radio Theater |
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"The Lux Radio Theater was the most
important dramatic show on the radio. It had the biggest stars, the highest
budgets, the most acclaim. It had a full hour to play with and during its
heyday, had one of Hollywood's most prominent producers as host" (The Encyclopedia of Old-Time radio by John Dunning) Put simply, The Lux
Radio Theater dramatized movies for
radio. And it strove to feature as many of the original stars of the
corresponding film productions as possible, usually paying them $5,000 an
appearance to do the show. Lux was power on a scale
that even movie people found intimidating. This was not a show to be
indulged, perhaps, when shooting schedules permitted: when The Lux Radio
Theater called, shooting schedules
were abandoned. Entire movie companies stood idle while stars rushed off for
radio rehearsals because producers knew when a film was dramatized on by Lux,
it automatically translated into big box office returns. The Lux Radio Theater was
broadcast from the Music Box Theater (on Hollywood Boulevard) and it was filled to capacity (1000 seats)
for each broadcast. At least 50 people were required for each broadcast: Louis
Silver's orchestra alone numbered
25, there were often 20 or more speaking parts, and when technicians were
added, the crew overflowed the stage. Each play was a 5 day commitment, with
the first rehearsals (a table-reading of the script) on Thursday followed by
the integration of orchestra and sound effects and further rehearsals over
the next 4 days through to the eventual live broadcast at 9pm on Monday
evening. The first Hollywood show
was the initial outing for Cecil B. DeMille, hired at $2 000 per week to host the series.
DeMille had been associated with many "big" movie productions (incl
The Ten Commandments) and his opening refrain: "Greetings from Hollywood, Ladies and
Gentlemen" set
the scene for "something special" É it was to be: The
Legionnaire and the Lady, starring Marlene
Dietrich and Clark Gable, the classic tale based on the 1930 film Morocco (which had starred Dietrich and Gary Cooper). The Lux show cost a
reported $17 000 or roughly $300 per minute with half of the cost going to
the two leads: $5 000 to Dietrich and $3 500 to Gable. It proved to be a huge
hit (with 40 million listeners) - at the end of program, DeMille announced
that next week's performance would be The Thin Man, featuring that movie's
stars, Myrna Loy and William Powell! And so it began, week after
week of Big Film dramatizations with Big Film Stars: The Lux Radio Theater
hit the ground running, remaining in the national Top 10 for almost all of
its 19 year (Hollywood) run. Many (all?) of the very
biggest stars performed on Lux with some appearing on more than one occasion.
To name but a few: Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Charles
Boyer, James Cagney, Claudette Colbert, Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper, Joseph
Cotten, Bing Crosby, Errol Flynn, Ava Gardner, Cary Grant, Charlton Heston,
Bob Hope, Alan Ladd, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, John Wayne & Loretta Young. Whilst almost 1000 shows
were broadcast, I have confined my attention to just 69 programs. Each one
has been chosen for the value of its story, its stars and the
"excitement" it brings to the radio waves. All genres are
represented, including a lot of films found in the Adventure, Mystery
& Noir section of my website.
Additionally there is also a nice sprinkling of comedy, westerns and (even)
sci-fi. Yes, Lux did them all: their writing & sound-effects teams were
fearless in their determination to present a good story regardless of the
limitations of the medium (but is there really a limit to our imaginations?) These 69 Lux programs are
listed below with their respective stars listed alongside. Check out that line-up! First up, of course, is the
initial Hollywood show: The Legionnaire and the Lady (with Dietrich & Gable) followed by The Thin
Man (with Powell & Loy). Some
will notice that in some cases whilst the star of the film is missing, he/she
has nevertheless been replaced with an equally famous identity eg Errol
Flynn replaced Gary Cooper in Lives of a Bengal Lancer. Sometimes the nominal star just wasn't available
eg Alan Ladd replaced Humphrey
Bogart in Casablanca, owing to Bogart's overseas duties entertaining the
US soldiers (Ladd mentions this fact at the end of the program). Due to similar
circumstances, Edward G. Robinson
plays the Sam Spade role in
Lux's The Maltese Falcon. Bogie was "on
board" however for To Have and Have Not (with Lauren Bacall), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (with Walter Huston) & The African Queen (with Greer Garson replacing Katherine Hepburn) An interesting situation
arose with I Walk Alone (24th
May 1945) when Burt Lancaster
didn't arrive in time to begin the (live) performance. The director (Fred
MacKaye) summoned bit player Ira Grossel to play Burt's part until the star was ready to take
over. As such we have Frankie Madison being played by two different people
during the show: Ira Grossel & then Burt Lancaster. Burt's voice is well
known but so to is Ira's: he changed his name to Jeff Chandler and went on to movie stardom! Burt and Jeff were to
combine again (in a more organised fashion) for Lux's excellent western
dramatization of Broken Arrow
(22nd January 1951). Other westerns in the
collection include Gary Cooper
in The Virginian, & North
West Mounted Police, James
Stewart in Destry Rides Again & Winchester 73, John Wayne in Red River & She
Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Alan
Ladd & Van Heflin in Shane (in a particularly powerful presentation from the
final year of Lux Radio Theatre production - 1955). Comedy "gets a
guernsey" in this collection, as well, with probably one of the very
best being presented: It Happened One Night (with Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable) - often opined as the "perfect movie",
Lux's interpretation may well be regarded as "perfect radio" with
Colbert & Gable simply fabulous in their radio performance (before a live
audience). Other comedies of note as also included: The Road To Morocco (with Bob Hope & Bing Crosby), The
Egg & I (with Colbert & Fred
MacMurray), It Happens Every Spring
(with Ray Milland) Lux recorded only two
sci-fi programs, probably because the genre was deeply rooted in the
"B" feature circuit at the time. A few sci-fi films did transcend
their "target" audience and became mainstream hits. The Day the
Earth Stood Still and War of the
Worlds were such examples.
Interestingly H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds had its most famous radio
outing with Orson Welles' famous
"newscast" of 1938 (available from within The Shadow OTR set).
Lux's The War of the Worlds is instead based 1953 George Pal's Oscar winning production of the same name which
starred Gene Barry as Dr.
Clayton Forrester. The role passed to "A" list actor Dana
Andrews for the Lux performance. A Note from Trev: In the course of this restoration project, the Lux
commercials have been removed - so too the "whats on next week" has
been excised - but, the chats between the host and the stars at the end of
the program are included (and there is some great entertainment value
there!). As such each program runs
for about 50 minutes. All 69 programs are of
excellent audio quality and have (each & all) been re-recorded for
maximum fidelity (and to allow enthusiasts to move programs onto 80 minute
audio CDs, if they require it, without loss of sound quality) Want to check out a few Lux
programs? Why not download a few
these 50 minute productions? They can be freely
downloaded to your computer -
just right button click
on any link below and chose "Download Linked File" (or words to that effect). The file is on an
average about 40Mb - download time will depend on your (broadband) speed. LT_1939-03-20
It Happened One Night.mp3 These
4 MP3 CDs consist of 69 episodes of The Lux Radio Theater All
elements of this collection have been carefully restored - beautiful sound
with no hiss! Disc No. 1 1.
1936-06-01 The
Legionnaire and the Lady - Marlene
Dietrich, Clark Gable 2.
1936-06-08 The Thin
Man - William Powell, Myrna Loy 3.
1936-11-02 The
Virginian - Gary Cooper, Charles
Bickford 4.
1937-02-22 Captain
Blood - Errol Flynn, Olivia de
Havilland, Basil Rathbone 5.
1937-05-31 The
Plainsman - Fredric March, Jean
Arthur 6.
1937-12-13 The 39
Steps - Robert Montgomery, Ida
Lupino 7.
1938-11-14 The Buccaneer - Clark Gable, Akim Tamiroff 8.
1938-12-12 The
Scarlet Pimpernel - Leslie Howard,
Olivia de Havilland 9.
1939-02-06 The
Count of Monte Cristo - Robert
Montgomery 10.
1939-03-20 It
Happened One Night - Clark Gable,
Claudette Colbert 11.
1939-04-10 Lives of
a Bengal Lancer - Errol Flynn 12.
1939-06-05 The
Prisoner of Zenda - Ronald Colman,
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, 13.
1940-03-04 Trade
Winds - Errol Flynn, Joan Bennett,
Mary Astor, Ralph Bellamy 14.
1940-19-09 Manhattan
Melodrama - William Powell, Myrna
Loy, Don Ameche 15.
1941-05-26 Virginia
City - Errol Flynn 16.
1941-06-02 They
Drive by Night - George Raft, Lana
Turner, Lucille Ball 17.
1941-07-07 Algiers - Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr 18.
1941-09-15 Lost
Horizon - Ronald Colman Disc No. 2 1.
1942-04-13 North
West Mounted Police - Gary Cooper,
Paulette Goddard, Preston Foster 2.
1942-05-04 Suspicion - Joan Fontaine, Brian Aherne, Nigel Bruce 3.
1942-10-26 Wake
Island - Brian Donlevy, Robert
Preston, Broderick Crawford 4.
1943-01-25 This Gun
for Hire - Joan Blondell, Alan
Ladd, Laird Cregar 5.
1943-02-08 The
Maltese Falcon - Edward G.
Robinson, Laird Cregar 6.
1943-04-05 The Road
to Morocco - Bing Crosby, Bob Hope 7.
1943-07-12 Air
Force - George Raft, Harry Carey,
Mary Pickford 8.
1943-10-18 Mr Lucky
- Cary Grant, Laraine Day 9.
1943-11-22 China - Loretta Young, Alan Ladd, William Bendix 10.
1943-12-13 Five
Graves to Cairo - Franchot Tone,
Anne Baxter, Otto Preminger 11.
1944-01-24 Casablanca - Alan Ladd, Hedy Lamarr, John Loder, 12.
1944-05-15 Action
in the North Atlantic - George
Raft, Raymond Massey 13.
1945-02-05 Laura - Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Vincent Price 14.
1945-02-12 For Whom
the Bell Tolls - Gary Cooper,
Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff 15.
1945-06-11 Murder
My Sweet - Dick Powell, Claire
Trevor, Mike Mazurki 16.
1945-11-05 Destry
Rides Again - James Stewart, Joan
Blondell 17.
1945-12-03 Blood on
the Sun - James Cagney, Sylvia
Sidney Disc No. 3 1.
1946-09-16 Madame
Curie - Greer Garson, Walter
Pidgeon 2.
1946-10-14 To Have
and Have Not - Humphrey Bogart,
Lauren Bacall 3.
1947-04-28 My
Darling Clementine - Henry Fonda,
Richard Conte 4.
1947-05-05 The Egg
And I - Claudette Colbert, Fred
MacMurray 5.
1947-10-06 Undercurrent - Katherine Hepburn, Robert Taylor 6.
1947-11-03 Singapore - Fred MacMurray, Ava Gardner 7.
1947-12-08 Ride the
Pink Horse - Robert Montgomery,
Wanda Hendrix 8.
1948-01-12 Kiss of
Death - Victor Mature, Colleen
Gray, Richard Widmark 9.
1948-01-26 Notorious - Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten 10.
1948-02-09 The Lady
in the Lake - Robert Montgomery,
Audrey Totter, Tom Tully 11.
1948-03-08 Spellbound - Joseph Cotten, Valli 12.
1948-05-24 I Walk
Alone - Bert Lancaster, Lizabeth
Scott, Jeff Chandler 13.
1948-11-22 The Big
Clock - Ray Milland, Maureen
O'Sullivan 14.
1949-03-07 Red
River - John Wayne, Joann Dru,
Walter Brennan, Jeff Chandler 15.
1949-04-18 The
Treasure of the Sierra Madre -
Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston 16.
1949-05-23 To the
Ends of the Earth - Dick Powell,
Singe Hasso 17.
1949-10-03 It
Happens Every Spring - Ray Milland Disc No. 4 1.
1949-11-28 Key
Largo - Edward G. Robinson, Claire
Trevor, Edmond O'Brien 2.
1950-10-30 Double
Indemnity - Barbara Stanwyck, Fred
MacMurray 3.
1951-01-22 Broken
Arrow - Bert Lancaster, Jeff
Chandler, Deborah Paget 4.
1951-03-12 She Wore
a Yellow Ribbon - John Wayne 5.
1951-04-09 The
Third Man - Joseph Cotten 6.
1951-09-17 Sunset
Boulevard - William Holden, Gloria
Swanson 7.
1951-11-12 Winchester
73 - James Stewart, Stephen
McNalley 8.
1951-12-03 Strangers
on a Train - Ray Milland, Ruth
Roman 9.
1952-04-07 Union
Station - William Holden, Nancy
Olson, Lyle Bettger 10.
1952-10-13 Five
Fingers - James Mason 11.
1952-12-01 King
Soloman's Mines - Deborah
Kerr, Stewart Granger 12.
1952-12-15 The
African Queen - Greer Garson,
Humphrey Bogart 13.
1953-01-19 Appointment
with Danger - William Holden,
Colleen Gray 14.
1954-01-04 The Day
the Earth Stood Still - Michael
Rennie, Jean Peters 15.
1954-12-14 The
Secret of the Incas - Charlton
Heston, Nicole Maurey 16.
1955-02-08 War of
the Worlds - Dana Andrews, Pat
Crowley 17.
1955-02-22 Shane - Alan Ladd, Van Heflin |