Classic Radio Theater

Aired on May 4, 1954.

Dragnet was created and produced by Jack Webb, who also starred as Sergeant Joe Friday. His goal was to create a show that was realistic, so he attended police academy classes and did ride-alongs with the Los Angeles Police Department as part of his research. The cases in the shows were based on actual cases handled by the LAPD. Dragnet was broadcast on NBC radio stations from 1949 to 1957. It overlapped with its TV version which ran from 1951 to 1959 in black and white, and was brought back to TV in color from 1967 to 1970. 

 “Big Lift” aired on April 27, 1954. As always, please don't believe the cigarette ads.

The hit musical South Pacific by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II premiered on Broadway in New York City in 1949 and ran for 1,925 shows. It is based on the 1947 book “Tales of the South Pacific,” by James Michener and follows the story of a nurse based in the south Pacific during World War II.

This episode of The Edgar Bergen Show with Charlie McCarthy aired on November 9, 1952, and features Marilyn Monroe as their special guest. Charlie was a puppet, and having puppets on the radio seemed to make sense at the time.

This episode of The Edgar Bergen Show with Charlie McCarthy features Edward Everett Horton and Abbott & Costello as guests. It aired on May 3, 1942. Charlie was a puppet, and having puppets on the radio seemed to make sense at the time.

Enjoy Orson Welles’s production of the beloved “A Christmas Carol,” which aired on Christmas Eve in 1939.

The Doctor prescribed Death aired on February 2, 1943. Boris Karloff plays psychiatrist Antonio Bacile, who believes that a suicidal person can, instead, be convinced to murder someone else.

“Johnny Red” aired on August 13, 1955.

"Ben Tolliver’s Stud” aired on July 23, 1955

Gunsmoke, the story of the violence that moved west with young America, and the story of a man that moved with it, U.S. Marshall Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad. From a time when westerns were popular, and cigarette companies could advertise on children’s shows.

 "Twenty-Twenty” first aired on July 16, 1955.