Long before she made her first MGM film, Judy Garland was known to radio audiences. Shortly after signing with the studio in 1935 (at age 13) Judy began appearing on radio shows sponsored by the studio, and eventually landed regular roles on other variety shows including Jack Oakie's College, and the Popsodent Show. Her first national fadio appearance occurred on October 26, 1935, on MGM's Shell Chateau program.

On this episode of HOTR, you'll songs from three radio programs, and a complete episode of MGM's Good News, which aired during the run-up to the release of The Wizard of Oz.

Today you'll hear:

Next week, Judy during and after World War II.

Command Performance was Hollywood's gift to the men and women serving overseas during World War II. Produced by the US War Department with 100 percent donated labor and facilites, the show featured appearances by performers as requested by servicemen. Each show featured a star MC, musical acts, comedy, and variety. Today's episode was produced June 30, 1942. Spencer Tracy serves as host, with appearances by Groucho Mrx, Barbara Stanwyck, Victor Borge, and Mary Lee, among others.

In this bonus episode of my Lux Radio Theater series, I bring the saga to a close, with a show dated February 22, 1955. Starring Alan Ladd and Van Heflin in their film roles, Shane offers an excellent example of how the Lux program maintained its quality, even at the end of its 20-year run. This recording is from the Armed Forces Radio Service; though the performance is the same as the original, Lux ads have been removed. Listen for my comments about old-time radio collecting in the intro.

I'll be back next week with something other than a Lux episode.

Today we hear Part 5 of a retrospective covering the history of Lux Radio Theater. Today's episode is Broken Arrow, which aired January 22, 1951, and starred Burt Lancaster, Jeff Chandler, and Deborah Paget.  Chandler and Paget reprised their film roles, while Lancaster stood in for the ailing James Stewart, who had starred in the film, and who had been scheduled to play the role on the raio.

In the fourth in our series of Lux Radio Theater programs, we move beyond the Cecil B. DeMille years, to the William Keighley era. DeMille left his position as host after nine years, following a dispute with the American Federation of Raio Artists (AFRA). After months of on-air auditions Keighley was named permanent host in November 1945, Keighley was a film director whose  credits included; Brother Rat, The Streat With No Name, and The Man Who Came to Dinner. Today's episode of Lux, from November 15, 1948, stars John Garfield and Jane Wyman in Body and Soul.

In part 3 of our Lux Radio Theater series, we take a look at Lux during World War II. Like most other radio series of the time, Lux included its share of war stories and other patriotic plays, but never abandoned the series' focus on the glamorous, and more carefree side of Hollywood. War-themed plays mirrored the fare being offered on the nation's movie screens, and on at least one occasion in the summer of 1942, Lux handed sponsorship of the show over to the US government, which re-christened the show, The Victory Theater, and used the episode to pitch war bonds. Male stars who had served in the military were welcomed back to the Lux stage with great fanfare, as were women stars who toured army camps stateside and overseas. Episodes during and after the war often featured pitches for war bonds, or human-interest stories about military personnel and civilians involved in the fight.

But in addition to the war themes, Lux offered musicals and melodramas, comedies and westerns. And as we'll hear, mysteries. Today's episode, The Unguarded Hour, stars returning Naval officer, and 15-time Lux veteran Robert Montgomery, along with Loraine Day. Set in peacetime London, it is based on the 1936 film starring Loretta Young and Franchot Tone. The Lux episode was broadcast on December 12, 1944.

Today we hear Lux episode 245, Dark Victory. It aired on January 8, 1940. The film version, starring Bette Davis and George Brent, had been released in April 1939, smack dab in the middle of Hollywood's greatest film year. Lux had presented another version of Dark Victory in April 1938, with Barbara Stanwyck and Melvyn Douglas in the lead roles. But in 1940, it was not the play, but the pairing of Academy Award winners Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis that Cecil B DeMille raved about in his introduction. Davis and Tracy had earned two Oscars apiece by then, having each won acting awards at the most recent Oscar ceremony in 1939. Tracy's Oscar was his second in a row. Davis had won her first in 1936. In short, Davis and Tracy were at the top of their game, and Lux made the most of their pairing on radio. Davis would go on to be nominated for another Oscar for her performance in Dark Victory. She lost to Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind.

With this episode, I begin a five-part series highlighting Lux Radio Theater, the most succesful, longest-running radio drama series in history.

We begin with the first Lux Radio Theater boradcast to originate from Hollywood. In The Legionaire and the Lady. Marlene Dietrich recreates her film role, with Clark Gable taking the part played by Gary Cooper in the film version. From this star-studded beginning in 1936, Lux built a phenomenal 20-year run, and sold a whole lot of soap flakes.

Featuring two episodes of Academy Award Theater. First is Paul Muni in The Story of Louis Pasteur. He won an Oscar for his performance in the 1936 film. Ginger Rogers took home the 1940 Academy Award for her performance in Kitty Foyle, our second episode.

NBC's 1950-52 variety series, The Big Show was a last ditch effort to stave off the growing domination of television. The series starred Broadway actress and raconteur Tallulah Bankhead as mistress of ceremonies. It was a lavish, star-studded production, with each episode running 90 minutes, and costing the network $100,000 to produce. Radio stars like Fred Allen were semi-regulars, as were a surprisingly wide array of film and variety performers. The show, which was produced in New York, traveled occasionally to Hollywood, and, in the 1951-52 season, to London. Aside from generating a buzz for the show, taking The Big Show on the road allowed the producers to bring on a different collection of famous guests. In the April 1 1951 episode we're featuring today, Ethel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Groucho Marx, and Bob Hope are among the guests. The episode was broadcast from Hollywood, soon after the Academy Awards for the year honored All About Eve as Best Picture. Starring Bette Davis, the movie was based on Tallulah Bankhead's life in the theatre. You'll hear a few "Eve" references in this episode of The Big Show.

Dick Powell began his film career as a juvenile leading man and crooner in musical comedies of the early 1930s. Bored by musicals, Powell remade his image in the 1940s as a hard-boiled film noir hero. His first major noir role was as Philip Marlowe in the 1944 film, Murder, My Sweet. In 1945, Powell began his first radio series, Rogue's Gallery, playing private eye Richard Rogue. The culmination of Powell's radio career came in 1949 when he starred as Richard Diamon, Private Detective, in the Blake Edwards-penned series. On today's show, we hear an episode of each series.

Cary Grant takes Joseph Cotten's role in this Screen Directors' Playhouse production of Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. The 1950 radio adaptation also features Grant's third wife, Betsy Drake. There are at least three other radio adaptation of Shadow.

Leading man Dana Andrews stars in the syndicated series that chronicles the stylized adventures of FBI undercover man Matt Cvetic. Cvetic worked for the FBI as a Communist Party mole in the 40s, before being fired for eratic behavior. He sold his story to The Saturday Evening Post, and then to Hollywood. Radio actor Frank Lovejoy starred in the film version, which became a cult classic. Taking advantage of the red hysteria of the early 50s, the IWACFTF radio series debuted in 1952 with Andrews as star. Seventy eight episodes were produced between '52 and '54.

What would it have been like if Alan Ladd and Hedy Lamarr had starred in Casablanca, rather than Bogey and Bergman? Find out in this 1944 episode of Lux Radio Theater.

Edward G Robinson was both a prolific film actor, and a frequent radio performer. Today we feature an episode of Robinson's radio series, Big Town, entitled "Every Sixteen Minutes". Next, it's an episode of Suspense with an interesting twist; Robinson plays a dual role in "The Man Who Wanted To Be Edward G Robinson", from October 17, 1946.

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall star in an episode from Bold Venture,a syndicated show created to entice Bogart into series radio. With Bogart as a hotel operator in the seedy section of Havana, and Bacall as his sultry ward, Bold Venture traded on the pair's existing screen images and usually featured murder and detective work by Bogey.