Throughout the 1940s, network radio was a powerhouse, dominating home entertainment. But, by the mid-1950s, things had changed; television had rapidly taken the place of radio and, in most American homes, people who used to faithfully listen to their radio favorites were now gathering around their TV sets to watch their favorite shows.

Many stars and shows made the transition to television, proving just as popular on the tube as they had been on the radio, but others – for a variety of reasons – didn’t make the switch. The comedy team behind one extremely popular show, in fact, made the decision NOT to go to television – and, by 1953, they assumed they were on the verge of a well-earned retirement.

Jim and Marion Jordan had been the stars of Fibber McGee and Molly for nearly twenty years. The series had been a ratings grabber almost from the start, entertaining millions of listeners from that familiar address at 79 Wistful Vista. At the urging of Johnson’s Wax, their long-time sponsor, they had actually filmed a TV pilot, but both were dissatisfied with the results. Fact was, after twenty years in radio – and a decade or so of vaudeville before that – the Jordan’s, weren’t particularly interested in putting on make-up, memorizing lines, and sweating under hot lights in a TV studio.

Their network, however, had other ideas – and so, in the fall of 1953, The Fibber McGee and Molly Show was reborn as a fifteen-minute daily series on NBC Radio. Starring Jim and Marion, along with co-stars Bill Thompson, Arthur Q. Bryan, and a host of talented radio veterans, the prerecorded show began airing twice a day five times a week – once in the early afternoon and once in the early evening. The result was three more seasons of hilarious entertainment, heard by a surprisingly large listening audience that enjoyed the antics of Fibber and Molly thru the spring of 1956.

Despite being prerecorded, once episodes of this new series were aired, the shows went into a vault at NBC Hollywood seemingly never to be heard again. Luckily, a few years ago, RadioArchives.com unearthed almost the entire run of the series – almost 480 episodes – on the original NBC transcription discs, the same recordings used to air the shows originally in the 1950s.

“Lux presents Hollywood!”

Old-time radio enthusiasts are in near unanimous agreement that, during its heyday, “The Lux Radio Theatre” (1934-55) was radio’s most important dramatic hour. The series commanded the crème de la crème of Hollywood’s silver screen stars, the biggest budgets, the best writing, directing and sound effects, and no less than Hollywood’s foremost film director, Cecil B. DeMille, as the program’s master of ceremonies.

“The Lux Radio Theatre” premiered on the Blue Network October 14, 1934 with a production of “Seventh Heaven” starring Miriam Hopkins, but switched to CBS Radio on July 29, 1935 for what would become a nearly twenty-year run on Monday nights at 9:00 PM. (It would switch to NBC – and a Tuesday night berth – in its final season beginning in the fall of 1954.) The show was originally designed to be an anthology of the Broadway stage, but the ratings and critical acclaim remained rather tepid because of the competition required to lure big-name stars visiting the East Coast to appear on the program. Many celebrities preferred to visit the Rudy Vallee or Al Jolson variety hours, where they would have a considerably lighter workload of singing or yukking it up with the host.

As “The Lux Radio Theatre” neared the end of its lengthy radio run, some anonymous bean-counter guesstimated that, over the course of the series, Lux had gone through 52,000 pages of scripts, 496 stars (Fred MacMurray and Loretta Young made the most appearances, with 26 and 25, respectively), 1,467 supporting players, 18,667 music cues and 22,667 special effects. Naturally, for the ten programs included in this collection, this is just the tip of the iceberg. But the listener of today certainly won’t be disappointed with the fine audio quality and first-class star lineup brought to you in this newly restored and remastered showcase by Radio Archives.

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow demonstrates that “crime does not pay” in two macabre mysteries by Walter B. Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, discovery of the theft of “Treasures of Death”brings fatal consequences, but The Shadow knows that this is only the prelude to a greater supercrime! Then, the greatest crooks in the world pass through “The Yellow Door,” until the Man in Black teams with G-Man Vic Marquette to uncover the deadly secrets of the sinister portal! This instant collector’s item showcases both classic color pulp covers by George Rozen and the original interior illustrations by Tom Lovell with original commentary by popular culture historian Will Murray. Double Novel Reprint $14.95