Treasure-troves of OTR Soap Operas
Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:15 pm
One of the best collector's items from radio's past is the entire broadcast day aired over station WJSV, Washington, D.C. on Thursday, September 21, 1939. Beginning with the sign-on and Arthur Godfrey's "Sundial" program at 6:30 a.m., it concludes with the sign-off at 1 a.m. Friday following a remote broadcast of the Bob Chester Orchestra "playing for dancers in the Mayfair Restaurant of Hotel Van Cleve in Dayton, Ohio." It is available from various dealers, and as a free download at archive.org under the title "Complete Broadcast Day."
The recording is a wonderful relic of radio's past, and should be of special interest to soap opera fans and collectors. All told, seventeen episodes of soaps can be heard (nineteen if you count The Goldbergs and Scattergood Baines as soap operas). Some of them are instantly recognizable to this day, such as When a Girl Marries, The Romance of Helen Trent, Our Gal Sunday and Road of Life. Others were not as famous, and extant episodes can be hard to find. These include Pretty Kitty Kelly, Brenda Curtis, This Day is Ours, The Life and Love of Dr. Susan, and Your Family and Mine.
Also available to collectors is the CBS coverage of D-day. Try searching sites of Internet dealers with key words "CBS," "D-day," and "Complete Day." My own copy is on cassette tapes, obtained from a dealer who is no longer in business. It begins at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 6, 1944 and runs continuously until 4:45 p.m. on the 7th except for a break between 3:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. on the second day.
Although the two days are dominated by war news, I count twenty-five soap episodes that survived all the pre-empts (again, twenty-six with one airing of The Goldbergs). Familiar programs like Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories, Big Sister, Life Can Be Beautiful, Ma Perkins and Portia Faces Life are included. So are some not as readily recollected like The Open Door, Amanda of Honeymoon Hill, This Life is Mine and Bright Horizon. As for rarities, the only episode I have ever seen available of The Story of Mary Marlin is part of the June 7th programming.
These two items are worth acquiring on their overall merits, but the inclusion of all the soap operas makes them even more attractive to some of us.
The recording is a wonderful relic of radio's past, and should be of special interest to soap opera fans and collectors. All told, seventeen episodes of soaps can be heard (nineteen if you count The Goldbergs and Scattergood Baines as soap operas). Some of them are instantly recognizable to this day, such as When a Girl Marries, The Romance of Helen Trent, Our Gal Sunday and Road of Life. Others were not as famous, and extant episodes can be hard to find. These include Pretty Kitty Kelly, Brenda Curtis, This Day is Ours, The Life and Love of Dr. Susan, and Your Family and Mine.
Also available to collectors is the CBS coverage of D-day. Try searching sites of Internet dealers with key words "CBS," "D-day," and "Complete Day." My own copy is on cassette tapes, obtained from a dealer who is no longer in business. It begins at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 6, 1944 and runs continuously until 4:45 p.m. on the 7th except for a break between 3:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. on the second day.
Although the two days are dominated by war news, I count twenty-five soap episodes that survived all the pre-empts (again, twenty-six with one airing of The Goldbergs). Familiar programs like Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories, Big Sister, Life Can Be Beautiful, Ma Perkins and Portia Faces Life are included. So are some not as readily recollected like The Open Door, Amanda of Honeymoon Hill, This Life is Mine and Bright Horizon. As for rarities, the only episode I have ever seen available of The Story of Mary Marlin is part of the June 7th programming.
These two items are worth acquiring on their overall merits, but the inclusion of all the soap operas makes them even more attractive to some of us.