When the Silver Theater premiered on radio on October 3, 1937, it was with the first of a four part show starring Jimmy Stewart and Rosalind Russell. The sponsor, 1847 Rogers Brothers Silverware, opened the show with much publicity in the newspapers, including ads like the one below from the Sunday Journal and Star, Lincoln, Nebraska, on the day of the first broadcast:
The radio listings were also quite generous with their information about the premiere, witness this blurb:
The full two-hours of this four-part show are a little too much to present within this blog, but if you’re interested in listening to the entire run of shows, you can do so here:
Here is how the first program opened with John Conte and Conrad Nagel:
At the end of part 1, Nagel talked with Rosalind and Jimmy:
Following this first broadcast, the Radio Daily (October 5, 1937) carried this review of the new program:
The article mentions several of the other actors appearing with Russell and Stewart, including Cy Kendall, Clayton Post, Wilfred Hari and Mary Lansing.
The October 6th edition of Variety carried this feature on the show:
There were also many publicity photos taken to help promote the show. Some of these will appear throughout the blog, beginning with this one:
For Part two, broadcast on October 10th, the newspaper ads were still introducing those who were on the program. The clip below, from the Freeport Journal Standard, Freeport, Illinois, mentions Felix Mills, the show’s musical director:
The Hammond Times, Hammond, IN, also printed this photo of the stars in its October 10th edition:
Once again, at the end of part two, Nagel does a short interview with Russell and Stewart.
For part three on October 17th, the newspaper mentions were considerably shorter. Here’s one from The Daily Herald, Provo, Utah:
The show’s beginning is different from most at the time. Nagel tells the audience that the script and players will summarize the first two parts without the aid of narrator’s recap. Here is the beginning of this show:
Unfortunately, to date no complete program has been found. All available programs have the ending removed, so it is not possible to determine if Stewart and Russell were interviewed at the end.
Part four brought a little more attention from the newspapers as can be seen in this short article from The Evening News, Harrisburg, PA:
Once again, Conrad Nagel returned at the end of the show to talk with Russell and Stewart:
