The same Stewart recording was used for the 1950’s V.I.P. Radio and the 1960’s The Big Sound self-promotion discs provided to radio stations on a subscription basis. The idea of this particular set of recordings was to supply a celebrity framework around which the local disc jockey could identify himself and the stations. As you…
Category Archives: Updated Information
Jimmy Stewart Subs for Bill Stern
On Friday, July 23, 1948, Bill Stern was aboard the S.S. Mauritania on his way to England to broadcast from the London Olympic Games. His radio show, Bill Stern’s Sports Newsreel, needed a substitute host and on this day it was Jimmy Stewart. As mentioned in Jimmy Stewart on the Air, it turns out that…
Boy Scout Jamboree – July 23, 1953
This was the fifth, and we believe final, Boy Scout Jamboree radio broadcast in which Mr. Stewart participated. Below are two newspaper previews of the event. The first is from the Long Beach Independent, Long Beach, CA: The second appeared in the San Antonio Express, San Antonio, TX: The show is not available, but these…
WJJD-AM, Chicago
According to the following listing from the July 22, 1948, edition of the Chicago Tribune, Jimmy Stewart appeared on this station from 10:30-10:45 a.m. on that day. The show is not available, so it is impossible to determine the nature of his visit. However, as mentioned in Jimmy Stewart on the Air, the film Call…
Victory Theatre – The Philadelphia Story
In 1942, The Office of War Information’s Office of Facts and Figures went to the broadcast networks to pitch the idea of their supplying blocks of airtime for getting war messages out the their listeners. The CBS answer to this plea was Victory Theatre. It aired just eight episodes, each one an extra performance of…
Bud’s Bandwagon #3
Stewart’s third, and final, appearance on the AFRTS program, Bud’s Bandwagon, was discussed in Jimmy Stewart on the Air, but we now have the audio to share with you. The show’s host, Bud Widom, says that he had attended the Hollywood premiere of Strategic Air Command and had a chance to talk with several people…
Broadway Playhouse
We did not have a listing for the Broadway Playhouse in Jimmy Stewart on the Air, but it is not really a completely new radio program. This Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) program simply re-broadcast Lux Radio Theater programs with all the commercials and references to Lux removed. This short article from the October 1,…
Monitor (July 17, 1955)
This is the first of more than a dozen documented appearances of Jimmy Stewart on the NBC weekend program. On the 15th of July, Stewart was in San Antonio, TX, to promote his film, The Man from Laramie. According to the following article from the San Antonio Light, it was during this visit that he…
The Big Sound – Big Sound Promos with Stars
The Big Sound was a radio format issued by Stars International. It was a series of 12-inch, 33 1/3 RPM records featuring celebrities delivering short messages to be used as “drop-ins” by radio stations subscribing to the service. Stewart appeared on several of these discs, including the one titled Big Sound Promos with Stars (B…
Kraft Music Hall – 1st Appearance
We gave a bare mention of this July 15, 1937, program in Jimmy Stewart on the Air because so little is known about it. Here’s an update on what we have been able to piece together from various newspaper clippings. First, although Bing Crosby hosted the show during the regular season, comedian Bob Burns was…
