Wednesday, December 12, 2018

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas - Day 9: Richer By One Christmas from the program Romance (1955)


184/365/2010 (December 12, 2013) - Wanda the Christmas Cat
Wanda the cat helping with Christmas Tasks (back in 2013)
Sometimes Christmas gets here quicker than it should.  Maybe you have a great deal on your plate these days.  You have parties to plan, presents to buy and wrap, and work to finish up for the year.  Maybe that is a good way to start today's episode with the anthology series Romance.  If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148).  He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get close to Christmas.

The Theater of Romance or Romance is a great radio anthology series that broadcast on CBS Radio Network.  The Theater of Romance is a bit of a misnomer. The way that today's episode opened was with this description: "Romance. Transcribed stories of love and adventure, of comedy and crisis, of conflict and human emotion." In looking at that opening statement, you could be prepared for, well, anything! And that is why this series will be fun to explore. The series was known as a filler - the kind of series that you would just slot into the schedule when an opening appeared. But from the Digital Deli article on this series (see the link below), they argued that this was definitely NOT a filler on the CBS Network:
  • Theatre of Romance and Romance spanned twenty-two years and over 490 installments during those twenty-two years.
  • Throughout those twenty-two years, Romance found at least four major, repeat sponsors--for contiguous runs of as many as 120 weekly episodes.
  • During most of its CBS runs, Romance commanded the greatest Film, Stage and Radio talent available during the era for leading--as well as supporting--roles in its dramas.
  • Even as a sustaining production, CBS' Romance continued to provide the highest production values, writing talent and West Coast Radio voice talent for its radioplays--right to the very end.
What I found in this series is the above and more. The production quality is great and these programs are very enjoyable. I am going to go through these more over the next few years. I even found one episode to use when I reboot my baseball Old Time Radio series.  A few years ago, I highlighted their dramatization of the writing of  The Messiah from Theater of Romance. 

 This story is a very different one.  It stars Virginia Gregg in the lead role for the program.  Virginia Gregg is a longtime radio actor who was wonderful as Brooksie alongside Bob Bailey on Let George Do It.  

 The story was broadcast on Christmas Eve in 1955.  Virginia Gregg stars as a mother in her small family with her husband Phil and her 11 year old Pete.  They are getting close to Christmas and all she can think about is the tasks that she has to do.  Its a holiday for kids - right?  While all of this is building to a crescendo, her husband receives a message from his sister-in-law.  Her mother is doing poorly and they think she should move out to California with them.  They could buy the airline ticket if they scaled back on Christmas and moved Pete out of his room.  At first she would have nothing to do with it.   But the more they talked, she remembered about growing up in Iowa.  One year, she sold Christmas cards just so that should could buy a Dresden doll for her mom.  The money that she did not use for that gift, she used for the Salvation Army.  As she told the story to her husband and her son, she shared the best Christmas that she had.  Well, likely the best one until that year.  

This wonderful program is sure to get you in the Christmas spirit!  I hope you enjoy.




Here are some links to programs relating to Theater of Romance:

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2018) & Other Links
Another 25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2017) 
25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2016) 

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)
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