Lux presents Hollywood!
August 20, 2008 (Wednesday)
I was thinking about an old radio show I used to hear when I was a boy, “Lux Radio Theater.” I mentioned it to Dwight, and he looked it up on the internet. Lo and behold, many of the shows of the 30’s and 40’s can be heard today on the internet. All you have to do is search for, “Lux Radio Theater,” and you can find it.
The idea of that old radio program was to present a popular movie on the radio. A script suitable for a radio presentation one hour in length, including commercials, was prepared for each week’s show, and many times the stars of the radio show were the same ones who had appeared in the movies. If the original star could not appear, another star of similar stature would read the part.
I remember how we gathered in the living room and listened for that familiar opening line, “Lux presents Hollywood!”
The last show was done in 1955. The world had moved on and television changed everything.
Movies were made in those days with a sound track that could easily be brought into the living rooms of American families. As time went on, entertainment of that type changed, and it would have become harder to make a “G” rated radio program out of many of the movies. Today it would be impossible.
But it was fun back in the old days. And exciting to find out that many of those old radio programs are still available for those who wish to hear them again. You can buy some of them, and you can find some of them on the internet merely by searching with your browser.