Opening Night

Lux Radio Theatre presents The Phantom of the Opera, a 1943 adaptation starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Basil Rathbone. In 1880 Paris, the Opera house is haunted by strange events. Soprano Christine Dubois begins a secret relationship with the Inspector Dubeau, while the violinist Eric Clodin, dismissed from the orchestra, struggles to have his concerto published. After a dispute at the publisher's office, Clodin is left in a state of growing desperation. The episode's opening act sets up the mood of the Opera, with its gaiety and hidden shadows, and the first troubles that begin to unsettle the company.

With Christine Dubois, Eric Clodin, Anatole Garron, Inspector Dubeau, Bianca Roli, Madame Giry, Raoul, Maria.

Listen for: The gradual unease of the Opera company as Clodin's grievances grow and the shadows in the building begin to stir.

First aired on September 13, 1943.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

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In 1541 in Peru, Omar, an Indian slave, and Alvaro, a Negro slave and former teacher from Seville, dig a grave for the murdered explorer Francisco Pizarro. As they work, Alvaro recalls his past, including his service as a pilot with Christopher Columbus and his later journeys alongside the explorers Balboa and Cortez. Alvaro reflects on the greed and violence each man brought to the New World. The episode is the chapter Dark Explorers in the Destination Freedom series, which dramatizes the history of Negro Americans, and it was first broadcast on July 11, 1948.

With Omar, Alvaro, Francisco Pizarro, Christopher Columbus, Balboa, Cortez, Alonso Nino, Rillan.

Listen for: Alvaro's recollections of sailing with Columbus, Balboa's execution, and Cortez's conquest of Mexico, as Alvaro reflects on the explorers' greed.

First aired on July 11, 1948.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Destination Freedom on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

Harriet Tubman, a young woman enslaved on a Maryland plantation, is injured when she blocks an overseer from beating a fellow slave. During a long illness she dreams of freedom, and after returning to work in the fields she decides to escape. She sets out alone at night, following the North Star, and reaches a farmhouse where a Quaker family hears her plea. This episode of Destination Freedom, a radio series from 1948, dramatizes her early life in the chapter Railway to Freedom.

With Harriet Tubman, Saul, George, Lewis, Mrs. Torpitz, Hannah, Levi, Master Bo.

Listen for: Harriet's inner voices and dreams, and her decision to leave her brothers and head north alone

First aired on July 4, 1948.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Destination Freedom on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

In 1770 Boston, British soldiers hunt a runaway slave named Christmas Attics, who has become a leader among the colonists resisting the king's laws. Twenty years earlier, his former master, Cyrus Brown of Farmington, placed a newspaper advertisement offering a reward for his return. Attics flees through the New England hills, is sheltered by a Quaker farmer named Abigail's father, and finds work on a whaler captained by a skipper whose brother had sent him there. Angus, the skipper, and his crew are drawn into the growing resistance, and the story follows Attics as he takes his place among the townspeople of Boston. Destination Freedom, a WMAQ radio series produced with the Chicago Defender, presents the episode, which was first broadcast on June 27, 1948.

With Christmas Attics, Captain Cox, Cyrus Brown, Abigail, Abigail's father, Skipper Kirkland, Alex, Angus.

Listen for: The Liberty Tree speech and the laughter of the sailors on the docks

First aired on June 27, 1948.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Destination Freedom on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

Peggy McLaren, a young woman with no home or job, is brought before the night court in Manhattan and charged with vagrancy. Novelist Mac McMillan, struck by her character, takes her into his mother's household to study her for his book. Peggy settles into the comfortable house, while Mac's younger brother Steve, a restless and troubled man, begins to form a bond with her. The episode is part of the Lux Radio Theatre series, originally broadcast on July 13, 1936, and stars Marion Davies as Peggy and Joel McCrea as Steve. The story follows the household's tensions and the growing relationship between Peggy and the McMillan family.

With Peggy McLaren, Mac McMillan, Steve McMillan, Judge Henry, Mrs. McMillan, Timson, Rosa Petretti.

Listen for: The night court scene in which Peggy is sentenced, and Mac's conversation with his mother about taking Peggy home

First aired on July 13, 1936.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every day: Lux Radio Theatre on Stupid Potato, live around the clock.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

Russian correspondent Maurice Voitecov arrives at a naval headquarters requesting passage to Sevastopol, where the city is under siege. The story follows Boris Voitikov as he files reports from the bombarded city, tracking the buildings still standing as the German assault intensifies. Divers, a fierce commissar and a wounded boy named Nikolai appear amid the destruction, along with a sapper and a commander who refuses to rest. The episode is part of the radio series Words at War, adapted from Boris Voitikov's book The Last Days of Sevastopol, first aired on 1943-07-17. Stefan Schnabel is heard as Boris Voitikov in the cast.

With Maurice Voitecov, Boris Voitikov, Nikolai, Ivan, Olga, Gregori.

Listen for: The steady count of standing buildings in Sevastopol, reported by correspondent Boris Voitikov as the city falls under bombardment.

First aired on July 17, 1943.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Words at War on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

In the months after Pearl Harbor, correspondent Clark Lee sits with Japanese-American Sergeant Jimmy Ajimimatsui in a Shanghai tea room, where Jimmy delivers a warning from a Japanese colonel: Lee should leave China before war breaks out. Lee then moves through Shanghai and on to Manila, where he meets his friend Melville Jacoby, Jacoby's wife Anna Lee, and Argentine diplomat Roberto Lanes. Over drinks they discuss American defenses in the Philippines with confidence that proves misplaced. The episode is an adaptation from Clark Lee's book They Call It Pacific, presented on the NBC series Words at War, original air date July 10, 1943, with Les Damon as Lee.

With Clark Lee, Sergeant Jimmy Ajimimatsui, Melville Jacoby, Anna Lee Jacoby, Roberto Lanes, Elario Francisco.

Listen for: The contrast between the confident talk in Manila about the American plan to defend the islands and the news that arrives as the war begins

First aired on July 10, 1943.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Words at War on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

Sergeant John Kenneth Smith, a Royal West Kent soldier with explosives experience, volunteers for a secret, dangerous job and is sent to the Combined Operations training center. There he meets fellow recruits including Scotty, a bagpiper, and the Irish-American Murphy, and endures hard physical training under a demanding sergeant major. The men learn to handle satchel charges and other weapons and are told they must solve their own problems. Their training is preparing them for a commando raid on the Nazi-held port of San Nazaire. The series is Words at War, first broadcast on June 24, 1943, and based on Hilary St. George Sanders' book Combined Operations, with Les Damon as Sergeant Smith and Jackson Beck as the Sergeant Major.

With Sergeant John Kenneth Smith, Scotty, Murphy, Timmons, Sergeant Major, Lieutenant Colonel Newman, Piggy O'Donnell.

Listen for: The rigorous commando training sequences and Smith's introduction to the men and the secret raid

First aired on June 24, 1943.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Words at War on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

A junior meteorologist at a San Francisco weather bureau notices an unusual weather pattern developing over the Pacific and names it Mariah. As the storm grows and sweeps toward the California coast, the chief forecaster must decide whether to predict rain, knowing how much depends on his words. Telephone and power lines, the mountain highway and the road crews who keep it open all come under pressure as the weather turns. This episode of the CBS Radio Workshop, first broadcast on February 10, 1956, was written by George Stewart and adapted and directed by William N. Robeson, with William Conrad as narrator.

With Junior meteorologist, Chief forecaster, Mariah, Road superintendent, Load dispatcher, Brownington steamship company official.

Listen for: The junior meteorologist naming storms and the chief forecaster weighing how to phrase his rain forecast

First aired on February 10, 1956.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: CBS Radio Workshop on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

In a controlled future society where people are engineered by class and kept content with the drug soma, Bernard Marx, a dissatisfied alpha, brings a woman named Linda and her son John, a savage raised on a reservation, back to London. The arrival causes a scandal for the director of hatcheries, and Bernard's reputation rises as he becomes the escort for John. John struggles to adapt to civilized customs, rejecting soma, Lenina Crowne's advances and the film screenings, while he meets Bernard and Helmholtz Watson and debates their society. This is part two of the CBS Radio Workshop adaptation of Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, broadcast on February 3, 1956, with Huxley as narrator.

With Bernard Marx, John the Savage, Linda, Lenina Crowne, Fanny Crowne, Helmholtz Watson, The Controller, The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning.

Listen for: John's arguments with the Controller and with Bernard about happiness, freedom, God and the right to be unhappy, and his confrontation with the crowd over soma at the hospital.

First aired on February 3, 1956.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: CBS Radio Workshop on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.