When It’s a Wonderful Life was first released in 1947, it was not considered a Christmas film. In fact, it went into general circulation two weeks after Christmas on January 7th. Likewise, its radio broadcasts were not limited to the Christmas season. The first radio broadcast of the story came on Lux Radio Theater, just…
Monthly Archives: December 2015
Christmas in the 40’s
This 6-CD set was issued in 1995 (GSC Music 19222; the individual discs had separate numbers, with the Stewart-Reed disc being #18200). The material found on the CDs is very varied as can be seen from the listings below: The version of It’s a Wonderful Life included here is from the Lux Radio Theatre broadcast…
The Gift of Christmas – Salvation Army
In late 1983, newspaper articles like the one below (The Indiana Gazette, Indiana, PA, November 15, 1983) began to appear: About a month later, this appeared in the Altoona News, Altoona, PA (December 17, 1983): One of the public service broadcasts on which Stewart appeared that year was the annual Salvation Army “Army of Stars”…
Christmas Service from the Hollywood Presbyterian Church
As we mentioned in Jimmy Stewart on the Air, this program is not available for listening. However, we do have a little bit more information to offer about the program. The most helpful newspaper preview that we have located appeared in the December 24, 1948, edition of the La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, WI: According…
Legends of Radio: Radio’s Greatest Christmas Shows
This 10-CD set was released by Radio Spirits (47122) in 2003. It is interesting to note that the only Stewart show on the set was originally broadcast on March 10, 1947, two and a half months after Christmas. As seen by the dates on the jacket, all others shows were broadcast in December, most close…
Good News of 1938 (December 23, 1937)
Jimmy Stewart acted as the master of ceremonies for this program which was broadcast just two days before Christmas. Two different newspaper previews provided much of the information about the show. The first is from the Fresno Bee, Fresno, CA: The second appeared in the Freeport Journal-Standard, Freeport, IL: The two articles give the guests…
The Big Sound – Christmas Greetings
If you haven’t read any of the other The Big Sound blogs, let me begin by telling you that this was a series of 12-inch, 33 1/3/ RPM records issued to participating radio stations in the early 1960’s. Each disc featured short spots delivered by film, TV, music and sports celebrities, which the station could…
The Big Sound – Shopping Days Till Christmas
If you haven’t read any of the other The Big Sound blogs, let me begin by telling you that this was a series of 12-inch, 33 1/3/ RPM records issued to participating radio stations in the early 1960’s. Each disc featured short spots delivered by film, TV, music and sports celebrities, which the station could…
V.I.P. Radio – Shopping Days Till Christmas
Like The Big Sound series which came later, this was a series of 12-inch 33 1/3/ RPM records which radio stations bought and used to promote themselves on the air. The promos were recorded by music, film, TV and sports celebrities. These records were most likely issued in the 1950’s. Notice that the label specifies…
Christmas 1955
This 90-minute NBC Radio special was broadcast on December 23, 1955. Unfortunately, it is not available. We mentioned it in Jimmy Stewart on the Air, but will be updating that entry with scans from several newspapers. The article with the most useful information was published in the Pasadena Independent, Pasadena, CA, on the day of…
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