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‘Be Moviedom’s Guest In Your Own Easy Chair!’ Hollywood, Radio And The Movie Adaptation Series

2013; Routledge; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01439685.2013.764722

1465-3451

Frank Krutnik,

Media, Journalism, and Communication History

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. 45 Minutes in Hollywood (advertisement), Photoplay, January 1935, 18. 2. See for example Michelle Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting: from radio to cable (Urbana, IL, and Chicago, IL, 1990), 78–115; Connie J. Billips and Arthur Pierce, Lux Presents Hollywood: a show-by-show history of the Lux Radio Theatre and the Lux Video Theatre, 1934–1957, Volumes 1 and 2 (Jefferson, NC, and London, 1995; John Dunning, The Encyclopaedia of Old Time Radio (New York and Oxford, 1998), 416–419; and Jeffrey Richards, Cinema and Radio in Britain and America, 1920–60 (Manchester, 2010), 128–146. 3. Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 1. 4. Ross Melnick, Station R-O-X-Y: Roxy and the radio, Film History: an international journal, 17(2–3) (2005), 217. See also Ross Melnick, American Showman: Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel and the birth of the entertainment industry, 1908–1935 (New York, 2012). 5. Melnick, Station R-O-X-Y, 217–219. 6. Within a few months, Roxy and His Gang shifted from offering an exclusively musical bill of fare towards a vaudeville-style enterprise that presented a range of performance attractions. See Melnick, Station R-O-X-Y, 220–221, and Dunning, 589–590. 7. Melnick, Station R-O-X-Y, 223. 8. See Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 33–34, and Donald Crafton, The Talkies: American cinema’s transition to sound, 1926–1931 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA, and London, 1997), 42–44. Warner Brothers went into partnership with Western Electric in April 1926 to form the Vitaphone Corporation, as a means of exploiting Western Electric’s sound-on-disc system for the synchronized sound film. 9. Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 38–45. 10. Crafton, 45. See also Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 40–46. Having recently increased its portfolio of exhibition venues by acquiring the Balaban & Katz chain, Paramount may have been wary of further costly expansion into the entertainment business. Hilmes suggests that the film company may have also been reluctant to follow through with its plans for a radio network for fear of alienating RCA and AT&T, who owned the two most viable systems for the synchronized sound film (see Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 40–43). Even so, the transition to sound did intensify cooperation between the two media at another level, as the film industry eagerly recruited radio technicians to make use of their expertise in sound recording and reproduction, setting them to work in both production studios and exhibition venues (see When Radio Answered a Call to Hollywood, New York Times, 10 August 1930, XX12). 11. See Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 55, and Richard B. Jewell, Hollywood and radio: competition and partnership in the 1930s, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 4(2) (1984), 126–130. 12. The growing cooperation between the two media was also facilitated by Hollywood’s transition to sound in the late 1920s and early 1930s, which equipped the film companies with stocks of performers and dramatic properties that could transfer with relative ease to the audio medium. 13. Jewell, 125–126. 14. Ibid., 126. 15. Ibid., 126–129. See also Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 58, and Richard Koszarski, Hollywood on the Hudson: film and television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff (Metuchen, NJ, 2010), 428. 16. Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 42. 17. See Jewell, 130, and Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 55–59. 18. Ibid., 58. 19. For more on relations between Hollywood stars, radio and advertising, see Cynthia B. Meyers, Admen and the shaping of American commercial broadcasting, 1926–50 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 2005), 165–170, and The problems with sponsorship in US broadcasting, 1930s–1950s: perspectives from the advertising industry, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 31(3) (September 2011), 355–372. 20. Jewell, 128. 21. Michelle Hilmes, Radio Voices: American broadcasting, 1922–1952 (Minneapolis, MN, and London, 1997), 121–123. 22. Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 44–45. 23. See Jewell, 131, and Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 67. 24. Ibid., 61–65, and Billips and Pierce (1), 3–4. 25. Billips and Pierce (1), 74–75. From the late 1920s to the early 1940s, NBC operated two distinct networks, the more popular and more commercial NBC Red and the smaller NBC Blue, which carried more non-sponsored public service broadcasts. NBC’s parent company RCA was forced to sell the Blue network as a result of increasing pressure from the FCC, which sought to curb the monopolistic powers of the two major networks, and it was purchased by American Broadcasting Company (ABC)—which began broadcasting under this name in 1945. See Michele Hilmes, NBC and the network idea: defining the ‘American System’, in Michele Hilmes (ed.), NBC America’s Network (Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA & London, 2007), 12–15. 26. Ibid., 6. 27. Even so, illustrious Hollywood names such as James Cagney, Paul Muni, Irene Dunne and Cary Grant graced the Lux microphone during its first season (Ibid., 73–91). 28. Ibid., 10. 29. Ibid., 11–12. 30. Ibid., 12. For more on Wells’ approach to radio adaptation, see Orrin E. Dunlap Jr., Sleight of Hand with Drama, New York Times, 28 July 1935, X11. 31. Billips and Pierce (1), 13. 32. Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 62–63, 67, 71. 33. David Glickman, Hollywood Points to its Sales Record, Belittling Talk of an Exodus Eastward, Broadcasting, 15 June 1939, 30. 34. Hilmes, Radio Voices, 115–116. 35. Ibid., 117. 36. Ibid. 37. Ibid., 117–118. 38. J.W.T Staff Shifts, Broadcasting, 1 March 1938, 45. 39. We Pay Our Respects To—Daniel Joseph Danker, Jr., Broadcasting, 1 August 1940, 83, 97. 40. Data derived from Harrison B. Summers (ed.), A Thirty Year History of Programs Carried on National Radio Networks in the United States, 1926–1956 (New York, 1971/1958), 59, 61. Several ratings systems were in use from the 1930s to the early 1950s. Launched in 1930, the Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting (CAB) ratings were the industry standard until the introduction of the competing Hooper system in 1934. A non-profit organization supported by leading advertisers, agencies and networks, CAB issued semi-monthly reports that offered ratings for each sponsored network programme. Up to 1944, CAB ratings were based on a telephone recall system, in which researchers phoned listeners in major cities several times a day and plotted their listening habits. Both the CAB and Hooper ratings represented the percentage of radio sets in the sample households tuned to a particular programme at a particular time. (See A. W. Lehman, Rise in Listening Shifts Program Rating, Broadcasting, 15 January 1940, 21, 80–81). C. E. Hooper’s coincidental telephone method quickly gained favour with many industry analysts, but CAB ratings persevered until 1946 (for example, in Broadcasting and Broadcasting Yearbook)—when Hooper bought out existing CAB subscribers. Hooper issued monthly figures for the top 15 evening programmes, which were carried, for example, by Billboard. Hooper’s ratings were in turn eclipsed by the metered listening records pioneered by A. C. Nielsen, which purchased Hooper’s national radio and television services in 1950. For a robust overview of these various systems, see Hugh Malcolm Belville, Jr., Audience Ratings: radio, television, cable (revised edition), Hillsdale, NJ, Hove and London, 1988), 1–61. 41. O.H. Caldwell, Production of Civilian Radio Sets—1922 Through 1953, Broadcasting Yearbook, 1954, 378. 42. These are very rough estimates, as the CAB and Hooper surveys were both biased, for example, towards urban audiences and homes with telephones. They do nonetheless provide some sense of the scale of the listener base for top-rated programme like Lux Radio Theatre. 43. Kate Holliday, Work Harder, Work Longer, Movie Radio Guide, 15 February 1941, 43. 44. Detailed information about ratings during this time can be found in Broadcasting, Broadcasting Yearbook and Billboard, as well as Harrison B. Summers’ useful year-by-year compilation of radio programming data, which draws on the CAB, C. E. Hooper and A. C. Nielsen surveys. 45. Rural Listeners Have Tastes Similar to City Listeners, CBS Survey Shows, Broadcasting, 15 February 1939, 16. The CAB also followed suit in canvassing rural listeners—see CAB Study of Rural Listening Habits Shows McCarthy and Benny as Leaders, Broadcasting, 1 June 1939, 18. At this time, 69% of rural homes had radios, by comparison with 91% of urban homes. 46. For example, a 1939 CAB study found Lux Radio Theatre to be the favourite drama show of rural listeners, and 7th favourite show overall (ibid.). See also CAB Finds Rural Audience Uses Radio In Day More Than City, But Less at Night, Broadcasting, 12 May 1941, 12. 47. See, for example, Radio Tops Media in Youth Survey, Broadcasting, 15 September 1939, 90; Lux Theatre First, Broadcasting, 2 June 1941, 36; Listener Interest Widely Increased, CAB Data Reveals, Broadcasting, 15 September 1939, 40; H. M. Beville, Jr: The ABCD’s of Radio Audiences, Broadcasting, 12 May 1941, 63; and Varied Regional Radio Choice Found By CAB, Broadcasting, 21 May 1945, 18. 48. See, for example, Results of Radio Popularity Poll, Broadcasting, 1 February 1938, 74; Charlie McCarthy Again Is Selected As Radio Leader, Broadcasting,1 January 1940, 18; Jack Benny Leads Annual Talent Poll; Swing is Ranked as Top Commentator, 1 January 1941, 17; Benny Again Wins Radio Editor Poll As Favourite Comedian, Favourite Show, Broadcasting,3 February 1941, 14; Poll of Radio Editors Picks Hope as Champion, Broadcasting, 22 December 1941, 56; Bob Hope Replaces Jack Benny at Top of Annual Balloting by Radio Editors, Broadcasting, 9 February 1942, 51; Don McNeill, Bob Hope, Ameche Lead in Annual Poll by Movie-Radio-Guide, Broadcasting, 18 May 1942, 34; Bob Hope Top Comedian, Benny Second in World-Telegram’s Annual Radio Poll, Broadcasting, 18 January 1943, 22; Hope Again Wins Top Comedian Award, Blue-CBS Chosen for Daytime Honours, Broadcasting, 11 December 1944, 22; Bob Hope Voted Best in Fame Poll; Allen, McGee, Crosby Tied for Second, Broadcasting, 17 December 1945, 17; Women’s National Radio Committee Citations, 1938 Broadcasting Yearbook, 188; Women’s National Radio Committee Citations, 1939, Broadcasting, 1 May 1939, 26; Forum Programs Preferred by Women WNRC Finds in Making Annual Awards, Broadcasting, 1 June 1940, 66; and … for Meritorious Public Service … [CBS advertisement], Broadcasting, 15 May 1944, 24. 49. George Greer, The Radio Theatre Goes Hollywood, Radio Guide, August 1936, 24. A 1948 article boasts that ‘To put on one Lux hour costs as much as to run a Broadway hit for a week!’ (Fifteen Years With Lux Radio Theatre, Radio Album, Fall 1948, 13). 50. Greer, 24, 43. Esteemed broadcasting critic Jack Gould credited the show’s success to the fact that ‘Radio Theatre stands as almost a model of pure radio craftsmanship, an example of unfaltering professionalism in staging a drama for the microphone’ (Jack Gould, Programs in Review, New York Times, 12 September 1948, X9). 51. Warner Grainger, Twelve Years a Hit: Radio Theatre Owes its Long Run to Behind-the-Scenes Perfection, Tune In, May 1946, 17. 52. Ibid. 53. Ibid., 18. 54. Billips and Pierce, 23. 55. Grainger, 19. For contrasting accounts of Lux’s theatrical presentations, see Philip K. Scheuer, A Town Called Hollywood, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 1936, C1, and Headaches and Heartaches Lurk Behind De Mille’s Production of Lux Theatre of the Air, Washington Post, 28 February 1937, T7. 56. Carroll Nye, Westward March of Radio Reviewed, Los Angeles Times, 5 September 1937, C8. 57. Good News took the slot previously occupied by Maxwell House’s venerable musical variety series Show Boat (1932–1937). Good News of 1938, the first series, was followed by Good News of 1939 and Good News of 1940, before being rebranded as Maxwell House Coffee Time (Dunning, Good News of 1938, 286–287). 58. See Larry Wolters, Radio, Motion Picture Costs Are Compared, Chicago Daily Tribune, 21 August 1938, SW4, and Larry Wolters, News of Radio, Chicago Daily Tribune, 6 November 1937, 18. 59. Guest Star List Grows, Los Angeles Times, 3 March 1938, A3. 60. Larry Wolters, Thinks Radio Erred in Leap to Hollywood, Chicago Daily Tribune, 10 November 1937, 19. 61. Larry Wolters, News of Radio, Chicago Daily Tribune, 4 November 1937, 25. See also Larry Wolters, Listeners Rises to Hollywood Radio Defense, Chicago Daily Tribune, 12 December 1937, W10. 62. See, for example, John H. Henry, Harry Conn in ‘Earaches of 1938’, The Washington Post, 21 November 1937, TS5, and Larry Wolters, News of Radio, Chicago Daily Tribune, 10 December 1937, 27. 63. Larry Wolters, News of Radio, Chicago Daily Tribune, 6 November 1937, 18. 64. Carroll Nye, Noted Actors to Star in Dramatic Show, Los Angeles Times, 6 August 1937, 14. 65. C.B.S. Announces New “Theatre” Half-Hour, The Washington Post, 22 August 1937, A9. 66. The programme was also known as The Gulf Screen Guild Show, The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre, The Lady Esther Screen Guild Players, The Camel Screen Guild Players and (on NBC from 1948 to 1950) as The Camel Screen Guild Theatre. Purchased by ABC, it ran, initially on a sustaining basis but then, under Buick’s sponsorship in an expanded 60-minute format, as The ABC Screen Guild Players from September 1950 to May 1951. The series returned to CBS as a sustaining programme from December 1951 to June 1952, where it was split into two separate 30-minute programmes, Stars in the Air and Hollywood Sound Stage, which were put together as a double bill. Both shows similarly operated as benefits for the Motion Picture Relief Fund (see CBS to Air 2 Drama Shows For Film Fund, Billboard, 1 December 1951, 5; New Orleans Meet Expresses Approval, Broadcasting, 17 December 1951, 87; Two CBS Shows Benefit Movie Relief Fund, Broadcasting, 26 November 1951, 5). After 13 episodes, Hollywood Sound Stage was replaced by The Screen Guild Theatre, which ran in conjunction with Stars in the Air for 17 further weeks. To avoid confusion, I will refer to the various incarnations of Screen Guild Theatre under this name. For a valiant attempt at making sense of the programme’s history, see The Screen Guild Radio Programs, The Digital Deli Too, http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Screen-Guild.html (accessed 12 May 2012). 67. See ’Round About the Studios, New York Times, 28 May 1939, X10; Screen Talent is Signed for Gulf Guild Program, Broadcasting, 15 September 1939, 40; Carolyn Holt, That Others May Live, Radio and Television Mirror, April 1940, 29–30, 84–85; and For Free—and For Fun!, Movie-Radio Guide, November 1943, 48–49. For consideration of the Motion Picture Relief Fund, see Jay K. Springman and Carol Pratt, The home that radio built, Journal of Popular Culture, 2(2) (Fall 1978), 265–274. 68. Dunning, 600–601. 69. See The Billboard Talent Cost Index, Billboard, 12 February 1944, 8; Hope and Lux down in TCI, Broadcasting, 22 April 1944, 9; ‘Audience-Delivering’ Stations, Billboard, 20 April 1946, 18; and Audience Sources & Distributors, Broadcasting 17 August 1946, 8. 70. Talent Cost Index, Billboard, 11 December 1943, 6. 71. Nielsen Index Program Ratings, Billboard, 7 February 1948, 10. 72. See A. W. Lehman, Program Popularity in 1943, 1944 Broadcasting Yearbook, 32; George H. Allen, Program Popularity in 1944, 1945 Broadcasting Yearbook, 38; George H. Allen, Program Popularity in 1945, 1946 Broadcasting Yearbook, 38; and C. E. Hooper, 1947 Radio Audience Analysis, 1948 Broadcasting Yearbook, 30. 73. Plans Completed for Louella Parsons to Conduct Filmland Series for Lever, Broadcasting, 10 March 1941, 10. 74. Samantha Barbas, The First Lady of Hollywood: a biography of Louella Parsons (Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA, and London, 2005), 166–169. Barbas notes that Parsons also finagled free appearances from stars on her earlier gossip programmes for Sunkist (1931) and Charis (1934), 149–151, 161–164. 75. See Hollywood Inside, Daily Variety, 8 January 1941, 2, and Barbas, 229. 76. See Louella Parsons Contract Still Pends, Variety, 12 February, 2, and Esty Abandons Parsons Program, Variety, 19 February, 22. 77. See Louella Parson’s ‘Free Talent’ Radio Commercial Tabooed by SAG, Variety, 5 February 1941, 1, 32, and Barbas, 189, 202. 78. Plans Completed for Louella Parsons to Conduct Filmland Series for Lever, Broadcasting, 10 March 1941, 10. 79. Ibid., 10, 52. 80. Ibid. AFRA adopted a similar ban on ‘free performance’ following the SAG ruling (Hollywood Premiere on a Lavish Scale Marks Promotion of New Lever Series, Broadcasting, 24 March 1941, 14). 81. Hollywood Artists Halt Lever Series, Broadcasting, 31 March 1941, 8. 82. Ibid. The first episode, a version of Universal’s forthcoming The Flame of New Orleans, with Marlene Dietrich—was savaged by Variety, which described it as ‘a poor show … ineptly adapted, weakly played, and made to sound ludicrous by Miss Parsons’ over-done intro and “interviews” with the stars and producer … Show deteriorated as it went along’ (Louella Parsons (review), Variety, 2 April 1941, 30). 83. Barbas, 231. According to Barbas, Lever Brothers responded to the outcry over Hollywood Premiere by offering full payment to the 120 actors signed for the programme. Parsons intended to withdraw from the series after its first season, but returned for a second season in Fall 1941 (untitled item, Broadcasting, 13 April 1941, 39). 84. Guild warns Kate, Broadcasting, 21 April 1941, 35. 85. The Screen Guild programme was excused from the SAG ruling owing to its charitable remit (Plans Completed for Louella Parsons to Conduct Filmland Series for Lever, Broadcasting, 10 March 1941, 52). 86. N.Y. Guest Shots On Upbeat, Billboard, 19 October 1946, 10. 87. Only Sustainers, Broadcasting, 24 March 1941, 14. 88. David Glickmann, Hollywood Turning to Radio for Talent: Feud Turns to Friendship as Two Industries Work Together, Broadcasting, 1 October 1940, 20. 89. Ibid., 20, 74. 90. Oppose Films Based on Radio, Variety, 11 June 1945, 1. 91. Ibid. 92. The writers included Irving Brecher, Willis Cooper, Irving Reis, Ed Beloin, Ken Englund, Nat Hiken, Dorothy Yost and Arch Oboler, while Reis, Frank Woodruff, Norman Corwin, and Orson Welles were among the directors (Glickmann, 74–75). See also Films Drafting Radio Writers, Variety, 4 January 1944, 22. 93. N.Y. Guest Shots On Upbeat, Billboard, 19 October 1946, 10. 94. See Haviland F. Reves, Hollywood Theatre of the Air (review), Billboard, 24 July 1943, 13. 95. Quoted in Dunning, 584. 96. For details of known episodes of this series, see Martin Grams, Jr., Radio Drama: American programs, 1932–1962 (Jefferson, NC, and London, 2000), 413–418. 97. Colgate Steps Up Romance Theatre; Budget Hiked 50%, Billboard, 4 November 1944, 11. 98. Also referred to as Comedy Theatre of the Air, The Old Gold Comedy Theatre and Harold Lloyd Comedy Theatre, the programme was produced by the Lennen & Mitchell advertising agency for the Lorillard tobacco and packaged by the MCA talent agency (Harold Lloyd Fronts New Old Gold Seg, Billboard, 14 October 1944, 6). For coverage of Lloyd’s involvement, see Mr. Lloyd Emerges From Retirement, New York Times, 12 November 1944, X7. A Washington Post item on the show’s inaugural broadcast credits Lloyd as its director and claims that he ‘plans to conduct his program along the lines of Cecil B. DeMille’s Lux Radio Theatre.’ (Sonia Stein, New Comedy Theatre Has Premier Tonight, Washington Post, 29 October 1944, S6). Claudette Colbert maintains the fiction of Lloyd’s authorship on the opening episode, introducing him as the programme’s host and director (The Palm Beach Story, Comedy Theatre #1, 29 October 1944). 99. Ibid. 100. Comedy Theatre did not figure among the top 15 rated evening programmes. In January 1945, for example, it achieved a modest Hooper rating of 10.6, by contrast with Screen Guild Theatre’s 23.4 and Lux Radio Theatre’s 24.5 (see Summers, 125). 101. Frigidaire Buys 20th-Fox Pkge., CBS Sun. P.P.’s, Billboard, 15 December 1945, 5. 102. 20th Century-Fox To Drop Tie-Up With Star Time, Billboard, 8 May 1946, 5. 103. Ibid. 104. See Jack Gould, Programs and People, New York Times, 13 January 1946, X5, and Hollywood Star Time (Laura) (review), Variety, 16 January, 28. 105. 20th Century-Fox To Drop Tie-Up With Star Time, 5. 106. See Frigidaire is Like Woman; Holds Star Time; Drops X, Billboard, 28 September 1946, 11, and Too Short For A Head: ABC Wed. Line-Up Adds Kaye; Eds as Talent Scouts on WOR, Billboard, 5 October 1946, 12. 107. CBS to Present ‘Oscar’ Winning Movies on the Air, Chicago Daily Tribune, 26 February 1946, 26. 108. Squibb paid up to $4000 for talent on each broadcast, plus a further $1600 per week to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for use of the title (Dunning, 4). Ratings for the show generally came in below 8%—for example, it secured a Hooper rating of 7.8 in the July 15 Hooper survey, just above Theatre of Romance’s 7.2 but below Screen Guild Theatre’s 10.5 (Drama Talent Cost Index, Billboard, 3 August 1946, 10). 109. Sidney Lohman, Radio Row: One Thing and Another, New York Times, 24 November 1946, 91. 110. Stars Pick Scripts For New Schenley Hollywood Players, Billboard, 17 August 1946, 8. 111. Sidney Lohman, One Thing and Another, New York Times, 18 August 1946, 55. 112. Natalie Rogers, Listen: News Notes From CBS, The Washington Post, 1 September 1946, S5. 113. The Hooper survey of September 15, for example, placed Hollywood Players as the 9th most popular evening programme, with a rating of 10.5—compared with Screen Guild Theatre at #3 with a Hooper of 13.1, and Lux Radio Theatre at #7, with 11.5 (WSM’s Grand Ole Opry Goes to Town (advertisement), 7 October 1946, Broadcasting, 41). In the 30 September survey, it was the 7th most popular evening programme, with a Hooper rating of 12.8 (compared with Lux at #1, with a Hooper of 16.2, and the Screen Guild programme at #2, with a Hooper of 15.9). (Lux Theatre Tops Nighttime Hooper, Broadcasting, 7 October 1946, 66). 114. Stars Pick Scripts For New Schenley Hollywood Players, 8. 115. Several sources, including the entry in Dunning, 313–314, identify this as a 15-minute programme, but they appear to be confusing This is Hollywood with Hopper’s various gossip series. 116. Camay Soap Setting Pic Deal To Edge In on Lux Theatre, Billboard, 22 June 1946, 51. 117. See Grams, 497–499. 118. Pix-Air Reapproachment Due: Camay ‘Test’ May End Ban on Day and Date Radio Use of Hollywood Film Stories, Billboard, 23 November 26, 12. 119. Ibid., 13. See also Network Program Reviews and Analyses, Billboard, 31 May 1947, 12. 120. P&G Shops For Cheapie For Camay, Billboard, 7 June 1947, 8. 121. This is Hollywood (review), Variety, 9 October 1946, 52. 122. Academy Award Theatre (review), Variety, 3 April 1946, 34. 123. Michele Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting, 105–106. 124. For a detailed considered of one filmic adaptation across several series, see Frank Krutnik, ‘Barbed wire and forget-me-not’: the radio adventures of Laura (1944), Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance 5(3), December 2012, 297–314. 125. Jack Gould, Marginal Program Notes, New York Times, 7 April 1946, 55. 126. Shirley Frohlich, Screen Guild Theatre (review), Billboard, 31 October 1942, 7. 127. Everything for the Boys (review), Variety, 26 January 1944, 34. 128. Arch Oboler’s Plays (review), Variety, 11 April 1945, 26. 129. Air Fade for Pic Star Shows, Variety, 12 February 1947, 26. 130. Ibid. 131. Hoop Hop of the Whodunits, Variety, 25 December 1946, 28. 132. Point Price Tags Startle Radio, Billboard, 11 December 1943, 6. 133. See ibid.; Dollar Value for Program Ratings, Billboard, 4 December 1943, 6; Joe Koehler, Radio Circulation Talent Rated, Billboard, 23 December 1944, 5, 8. 134. John K. Hutchens, Crime Pays—On the Radio, New York Times Sunday Magazine, 19 March 1944, 16. 135. Whodunits Rule Radio Roost, Variety, 27 June 1945, 31. 136. Data derived from Cosmetic Talent Cost Index, Billboard 20 July 1946, 12. 137. George Rosen: Low Cost Radio in Big Payoff, Variety, 25 May 1949, 1. 138. Ibid., 1, 34. 139. Pix-Air Reapproachment Due, 12. 140. Picture-Packin’ Papas Mad, Variety, 23 February 1944, 1, 18. 141. Pix-Air Reapproachment Due, 12. 142. Ibid., 12. 143. Ibid., 13. 144. New Air-Pix Story Deal, Billboard, 30 November 1946, 8. 145. Ibid., 8, 14. 146. Click Air-Pix Deal Seen As Lever for More Pacts, Billboard, 1 February 1947, 13. 147. Indie Pic Producers Drive for More Cuffo Air Plugs, Billboard, 3 May 1947, 12. 148. Ibid. 149. Indie Pic Producers Drive for More Cuffo Air Plugs, 12. 150. Alan Fischler, Film Cuts Hit Air Dramas, Billboard, 28 August 1948, 15. 151. Ibid. 152. Incest was, admittedly, a pretty difficult topic to broach in cinema as well, although Scarface (1932), King’s Row (1942) and The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1935) were among the notable Hollywood productions that managed to insinuate it. 153. Fischler, 15. 154. Ibid. 155. Thomas Schatz, Boom and Bust: American cinema in the 1940s (Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA, and London, 1999), 292. 156. That same year saw the introduction of the hour-long syndicated transcription series MGM Theatre of the Air (1949–1951), packaged by MGM Radio Attractions, which adapted the studio’s screen properties utilizing performers from MGM and other companies. See MGM Heading Toward Boff Wax Profit; May Hit $1 Mil, Billboard, 9 July 1949, 5–8; MGM Toes the AM Rubber, Winds Up, and Here Comes ‘At Ole Production Pitch, Billboard, 22 October 1949, 9–10; Jack Gould, Ecomium and Rebuke, New York Times, 22 January 1950, 89; MGM Program Line-Up Finalized By Mutual, Billboard, 17 November 1951, 5; and MBS-MGM Radio Attractions Rift Over Renewal Terms Widen, Billboard, 8 November 1952, 6. As noted earlier, Hollywood Sound Stage and Stars in the Air, also introduced in the early 1950s, were spin-offs from and continuations of Screen Guild Theatre. 157. The programme performed well in the ratings—for example, coming 5th (with 6.5%) in the evening Nielsen ratings for the week of 1–7 July 1951, and 7th (with 5.7%) for 15–21 July 1951, 3rd (with 6.2%) for 1951 July 28-August 4. (National Nielsen ratings Top Radio Programs, Broadcasting, 13 August 1951, 84; National Nielsen ratings Top Radio Programs, Broadcasting, 3 September 1951, 70; and National Nielsen ratings Top Radio Programs, Broadcasting, 10 September 1951, 44). 158. For a discussion of the paradoxes of authorship in one episode of this series, see Peter Lehman, ‘Tonight your director is John Ford’: the strange journey of Stagecoach from screen to radio, in: Andrew Horton and Stuart Y. McDougal (eds), Play It Again, Sam: retakes on remakes (Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA, and London, 1998), 293–309. 159. The networks created successful television versions of Lux Radio Theatre (as Lux Video Theatre, 1950–1957, then Lux Playhouse, 1958–1959) and Screen Directors’ Playhouse (1955–1956). While attracting such notable directors as John Ford, Jacques Tourneur and Frank Borzage, the latter presented original material rather than movie adaptations. Lux Video Theatre started out in a similar vein, but film adaptations began to predominate from 1954–1957, including renditions of Double Indemnity (16 December 1954), Sunset Boulevard (6 January 1955), Casablanca (3 March 1955) and Mildred Pierce (20 September 1956). 160. For consideration of relations between the cinema and television industries during this period, see Christopher Anderson, Hollywood TV: the studio system in the fifties (Austin, TX, 1994).