Television without pictures.
When television was still an unrealized dream, the king of imagination was a piece of furniture about the size of a picnic basket. Every day shortly after sunset, America would pull her chair up to this little box and spend a delightful evening as the magic of fiction was made to come alive.
During the Golden Age of Radio, radio programs featured adventure, comedy, drama, horror, mystery, musical variety, romance, thrillers—along with classical music concerts, big band remotes, farm reports, news and commentary, panel discussions, quiz shows, sports broadcasts, talent shows and weather forecasts.
In the early 1940′s, radio programs reflected America’s involvement in World War II. As the number of news and human interest programs grew, evening variety, musical, quiz, and audience participation programs shrunk. During this time, evening dramatic programs exploded in growth. During the middle to late 1940′s, radio drama reached its peak, then came the expansion of television, causing it to quickly fade into history.
1940s.org Presents: Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast once a week on the NBC Blue Network (1934-35); CBS (1935-54) and NBC (1954-55). These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences. During the years on CBS in Hollywood, Lux Radio Theater was broadcast from the Lux Radio Playhouse located at 1615 North Vine Street in Hollywood, one block south of the intersection of Hollywood and Vine. It became the most popular dramatic anthology series on radio, broadcast for more than 20 years.
Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. Lux Radio Theater tried to feature as many of the original stars of the original stage and film productions as possible. Abbott and Costello, Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Charles Boyer, Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, Dan Duryea, Ava Gardner, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Vivien Leigh, Myrna Loy, Agnes Moorehead, Vincent Price, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Stanwyck, James Stewart, Gene Tierney, John Wayne, and Orson Welles, to name just a few of the film legends who appeared on the show.
Marlene Dietrich Original 1940s CBS Promo Photo Old Time Radio
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Nick Carter Master Detective (Old Time Radio 9CDs f Lon Clark 40s
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VIRGINIA BRUCE Old Time Radio Shows RARE Vintage OTR 2 CDs 1940s HUMPHREY BOGART
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WE, THE PEOPLE (1940's) Old Time Radio - CD-ROM - 4 mp3
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LIGHTING JIM (1940's) OLD TIME RADIO - 1 CD-ROM - 41 mp3
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Below you’ll find shows that were originally broadcast in the 1940s, click on any title to begin an hour of pure entertainment.
Note is in to fix the music player 04/26/2013
[mp3player width=650 height=300 config=filmnoir.xml playlist=luxtheater.xml]
The following radio shows aired weekly, and ran at least some part of the 1940s. Advertisers are also listed, if known.
| Adventures of Ellery Queen | Bromo Seltzer, Anacin | 1939 – 1948 |
| Adventures of Sam Spade | Wildroot | 1946 – 1951 |
| Amos ‘n’ Andy | Pepsodent, Campbell Soup, Rinso, Rexall | 1928 – 1960 |
| Bing Crosby | Cremo, Chesterfield, Woodbury, Kraft, Philco | 1931 – 1956 |
| Captain Midnight | Skelly Oil, Ovaltine | 1939 – 1949 |
| Creaking Door | 555 Cigarettes | |
| Crime Club | Sustained | 1946 – 1947 |
| Dragnet | Fatima, Chesterfield | 1949 – 1957 |
| Duffy’s Tavern | Shick, Sanka, Ipana | 1941 – 1952 |
| Edgar Bergen – Charlie McCarthy | Chase & Sanborn Coffee, Coca-Cola | (1937) – 1954 |
| Escape | Richfield Oil, Ford | 1947 – 1954 |
| Falcon | Several – see description | 1943 – 1954 |
| Fibber McGee & Molly | Johnson’s Wax | 1935 – 1956 |
| Glenn Miller Show | Chesterfield Cigarettes | 1939 – 1942 |
| Green Hornet | General Mills, Orange Crush | 1936 – 1953 |
| Hermit’s Cave | Olga Coal | 1940 – 1944 |
| Jeff Regan, Investigator | 1948 – 1950 | |
| Lights Out | Ironized Yeast, Energine, Snow White Bleach | 1934 – 1947 |
| Lone Ranger | Silvercup, Bond Bread, Cheerios | 1933 – 1956 |
| Molle Mystery Theatre | Molle shaving cream | 1943 – 1954 |
| Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons | Bi-So-Dol, Kolynos, Chesterfield | 1937 – 1955 |
| Murder at Midnight | 1946 – 1947 | |
| Mysterious Traveler | Sustained | 1943 – 1952 |
| Pat Novak for Hire | 1946 – 1949 | |
| Sealed Book | 1945 | |
| Shadow | Blue Coal | 1930 – 1954 |
| Sherlock Holmes | George Washington Coffee, Household Finance | 1930 – 1956 |
| Smilin’ Ed’s Buster Brown Gang | Buster Brown Shoes | 1929(?) – 1953 |
| Straight Arrow | Nabisco | 1948 – 1951 |
| Suspense | Roma Wines, Autolite, Philip Morris, Marlboro, Kellogs | 1942 – 1962 |
| The Inner Sanctum | Carters, Colgate, Bromo Seltzer, Mars | 1941 – 1951 |
| This is Your FBI | Equitable Life; Sustained | 1945 – 1953 |
| Tommy Dorsey Orchestra | Raleigh, Kool, Nature’s Remedy, others | 1934 – 1946 |
| Whistler | Signal Oil | 1942 – 1955 |
| Will Bradley Orchestra | 1940s |
