Hello and welcome to The Old-Time Radio Hour Blog . My name is Justeen Ward and I'm your host for an hour long program looking back at the Golden Age of Radio. For the next three weeks we are featuring a history of the CBS network narrated by newscaster Walter Cronkite. It was originally broadcast as a three hour special on one day in 1977 but we have made it into three separate shows. We know our listeners have busy schedules and we really appreciate your tuning in for an hour each week. The first part of the special focuses on Music and the extensive news organization that CBS built. CBS started in 1927 as a joint venture of Arthur Judson and the Columbia Phonograph Company with the idea of broadcasting music from a studio symphony orchestra. That turned out to be rather expensive and they passed the enterprise on to investors who put the great William S Paley in charge of programming. He had an unerring instinct for what the American public would like to hear. He was from a wealthy family with a cigar company and found out that advertising on radio could double the number of cigars they sold. He was one of the pioneers of radio programming and he started the Paley Center for Media, a museum with branches in New York and Los Angeles. Enjoy CBS at Fifty, an Autobiography in Sound narrated by Walter Cronkite first broadcast September 18, 1977 on CBS. We broadcast this show every week over iTunes, Podbean and throughout the World Wide Web. Thank you so much for tuning in to this first part of the history of CBS radio narrated by Walter Cronkite. I hope you enjoyed it and will join us again next week when we bring you the next hour of this fascinating history. Next week's segment continues with a look at the fabulous entertainers of radio's golden age as well as radio's ability to bring sports to the public in real time even when they couldn't attend the event in person. I would be thrilled if you find time to listen.
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Hello and welcome to The Old-Time Radio Hour Blog. I'm your host Justeen Ward and this week we selected two half hour shows for Independence Day. The Fourth of July is a big celebration here in the United States and today we bring the celebration to our listeners all over the world with a sit com and a history program. Both of them are very entertaining and I know you will enjoy them. First we have a dramatization of the history of the Declaration of Independence from Cavalcade of America. This was a program designed to highlight positive aspects of American history and also improve the publics view of it's sponsor Du Pont Company. DuPont had been branded the merchants of death because of huge profits they made selling gunpowder during World War I. During the 1930s they hired an advertising agency to improve their image. Part of that effort was the show Cavalcade of America. You will enjoy the fine dramatization of the Declaration of Independence by some of the best actors in New York as well as a commercial segment on the miracle of cellophane. Enjoy Cavalcade of America first broadcast January 1, 1936 on CBS. You are listening to The Old-Time Radio Hour broadcast each week throughout the World Wide Web. Find us on iTunes or RSS. After Cavalcade we bring you a few laughs as recent immigrant Luigi Basco attends his first Fourth of July parade. Things never go smoothly for Luigi Basco and this is no exception on Life With Luigi Fourth of July Parade first broadcast July 3, 1949 on CBS. Thank you so much for listening to The Old-Time Radio Hour. Each week we bring you the finest shows from the golden age of radio. We appreciate our listeners tuning in to hear our shows and next week we will continue with a history lesson. We have the first in a three part series of the history of CBS that is narrated by Walter Cronkite. I hope you can find time to listen to the show next week.
Hello and welcome to The Old-Time Radio Hour Blog. I'm your host Justeen Ward and this week we celebrate Father's Day. Scores of countries around the globe celebrate Fathers Day on the third Sunday in June and it has been a popular celebration since 1913 in the United States. Surprisingly, it wasn't adopted into law as an official holiday until 1972. This is an especially important holiday for The Old-Time Radio Hour because I have been collaborating with my father Gene Ward on the show for the past three years. For Father's Day we have two charming sit coms about misunderstanding what Father really wants on this special day with Father Knows Best and The Life of Riley. First we present The Life of Riley with a new suit for Father's Day. Enjoy The Life of Riley first broadcast June 15, 1946 on NBC. The Old-Time Radio Hour is broadcast each week throughout the World Wide Web. I'm your host Justeen Ward and next we have a visit with the Anderson family of Springfield. Father's Day gets a little out of hand when the whole town plans a big picnic to celebrate on Father Knows Best first broadcast June 14, 1951 on NBC
Hello and welcome to The Old-Time Radio Hour. I'm your host Justeen Ward and this week we have some laughs in the play and also in the repartee between Orson Wells and Jack Benny. Jack Benny plays the romantic lead in this adaptation of the 1931 movie for radio. The Campbell Playhouse was an extension of Orson Welles Mercury Theater on the Air after Campbell's Soup joined as a sponsor. The Mercury Players are featured as well as guest star Jack Benny. They seem to have written some extra jokes about how frugal the lead character is to play into Benny's popular radio persona who when asked "your money or your life" said "I'm thinking". This is a wonderful script collaboration between George Kaufman and Ring Lardner. I know you will enjoy The Campbell Playhouse Orson Welles producer "June Moon" by George Kaufman and Ring Lardner first broadcast March 24, 1940 on CBS. We broadcast the show each week over the World Wide Web and we thank you so much for listening. Hope you can join us next week when we honor fathers all over the world with some Father's Day situation comedy. The Old-Time Radio Hour is a collaboration between me and my father Gene Ward who hosted the show for several years before I took over as host.
Hello and welcome to another week of the finest programs from the golden age of radio. This is The Old-Time Radio Hour Blog and I'm your host Justeen Ward for two wonderful half hour versions of film comedies. For about nine months from October of 1944 through June of 1945 Old Gold cigarettes presented Comedy Theater. It featured film comedies condensed to a half hour and was hosted by the famous silent film comedian Harold Lloyd. He tried to present the show like Cecil B DeMille presented Lux Theater but the public never resonated with him in that dignified role and critics didn't like his attempts at radio humor. I didn't have the expectations of those who were fans of his silent movie personality so I thought Harold Lloyd did a fine job as presenter of Comedy Theater. First we have The Magnificent Dope. The movie was adapted from a play by Joseph Schrank. Enjoy The Comedy Theater sponsored by Old Gold Cigarettes "The Magnificent Dope" first broadcast March 11, 1945 on NBC. We broadcast each week throughout the World Wide Web. Next we have a short version of the movie "Boy Meets Girl" starring Anne Sothern as the comic waitress involved in a very offbeat romance. This is a classic comedy set in a Hollywood Studio and I know you will enjoy it immensely! Here is The Comedy Theater "Boy Meets Girl" first broadcast May 20, 1945 on NBC. If we leave you wanting more, don't get irritated, tune in again next week when we bring you a delightful comedy from The Campbell Theater and Orson Wells starring Jack Benny. That's right, Jack Benny plays the leading man next week and I know you will enjoy it if you join us for that treat!
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