Old Time Radio From The Screen Guild Theater

For years, the Screen Guild Theater was known as the top variety show in Hollywood. Never before had so many famous personalities featured all in one show. Between the years of 1939 and 1952, the show ran in many forms.

Initially, the show started being a charity. Many famous faces that starred in the show gave their earnings to the Motion Picture Relief Fund. The Motion Picture Country House was a success thanks to the $800,000 raised from actors starring in the show.

The facility was built for helping out retired actors that needed something more secure in their later years, possibly due to becoming poorer. The mission of the show to raise money for fellow actors surely fueled the desire of Hollywood’s biggest stars to appear.

From its inception in 1939 the show was hosted by George Murphy. Following that, Roger Pryor took the reigns in 1940. Old Time Radio adaptations of the movies of the day soon replaced the initial show format. The shows were very popular with the most famous celebrities of Hollywood.

Guests included Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Jimmy Cagney, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Bing Crosby to name a few. While the show became wildly popular, it wasn’t always so.

During the first year of production, the show seemed disjointed. Even though the big stars were commonplace, even their guest appearances were not enough to push in an absolute success. The introduction of a new host Roger Pryor helped to smooth it out and make it into something worth listening to.

In 1942, Gulf pulled out as the show’s sponsor, due to the oil industry suffering from the effects of World War 2. However, it didn’t take long to find a new sponsor. As the new sponsor Lady Esther joined the show, a new show format was also brought in.

During this time, many successful films were re-versioned as Old Time Radio shows. Movies were modified into shorter script versions lasting about half an hour. The biggest stars of Hollywood featured, including Judy Garland. The Screen Guild Theater show was the show to be on, and drew in plenty of famous faces.

By June 1952, the Screen Guild Theater left the radio. Hundreds of recordings were stored so there’s plenty more enjoyment to be had of these once live shows. Over 200 of these shows from the Golden Age of Radio are available to listen. As far as old time radio shows went, the Screen Guild Theater was massively successful and appealing.